The New Boy
by Sup.Sarah
Summary: Twilight reverse. Bella lives in Forks and is happy with her vampire family and life. Edward Masen moves to town and she finds what she really needed, but never knew was missing. What will they have to fight to be together? Will love prevail? Ed Be
1. Chapter 1 Moving and Meeting

**The New Boy**

**This is my new story, obviously. It is another 'twilight-in-reverse' story, vampire Bella and human Edward. I don't own Twilight, Linkin Park, Flyleaf, The red Jumpsuit Apparatus or Muse. Also, I wish I knew Spanish, and I think that it would be awesome to move to Spain, or at least visit, but I do dislike math. Review are appreciated **

**This story is set half way through the school year, would anybody be able to tell me when American schools go on holidays? I know you get the summer off, but our holidays are different to yours. Thankyou.**

"School! Come on everyone, today's going to be great!" Alice's thrilling voice carried up the stairs and into my bedroom. How can she be so happy when she has to go to school, learning the exact same thing that we always do, every time we go to a new high school, every time we move town- which happened way more often then we should have to. We could all teach all of these classes better than the teachers. Honestly, between us we had college degrees in all of the subjects that Forks High offered, plus a variety of others. Unfortunately small towns usually didn't have more advanced courses that we could occasionally learn something from, unlike the big cities. My family tended to stay away from big cities when we were looking for some place new to live – there was too high a chance that we would be recognized. Recognition was a very bad thing for us – especially when it was by a 50 year old classmate and you still looked seventeen, that's always hard to explain. Luckily, most of the human population is easy to convince. 'Oh Bella Swan/ Cullen/ Platt? She's my mother! How do you know her?' – that one almost always works. But then we have to find out if said person actually lives in the city, and we usually end up leaving early. You might be wondering why I would still look 17 after 33 years. Well, I'm a vampire. So is my family, but it's a secret. Obviously we can't tell the humans about our existence. They would be scared of us, avoid us even more. A few 'brave' ones would probably come at us with lighters, and that would just piss the rest of us off. No, it's better this way, even if moving is a hassle.

So why do we know the classes better than the teachers? To stay inconspicuous, my 'siblings' and I attend the local high schools. We start out as young as we can, stay until graduation and then maybe a year or two after that, then pack up and move, then we start the whole thing again. Sounds fun right? Well I'm being sarcastic. I can't really complain though, this lifestyle is so much better than being a nomad – I couldn't imagine living like that. By no means am I a material girl, but I like my stereo system, my car and having a bed to lay on, even if I can't sleep. Creature comforts, whatever. My family only drinks the blood of animals, that's how we are able to stay in one place for an extended amount of time. The nomads are usually the human drinkers. Just the thought of dinking human blood sickens me, as it does the rest of my family. That's why we have chosen this lifestyle, I mean, we were all human once and we didn't kill then did we?(except for Jasper, but he was a soldier, and I know that he didn't enjoy killing anybody.)

"Bella, stop moping and hurry up, you better be dressed, were leaving now!" It was a good thing that I had gotten dressed for school after hunting. Alice was always picky abut what we wore, but I don't understand why she complains. She brought most of our clothing, why does she complain when we wear it? I ran down the stairs, thanking the Heavens for vampire speed and gave Esme a kiss on the cheek before sprinting to the car, sliding into the open passenger seat and slamming the door, earning a hiss from Rosalie. She was driving, and she couldn't stand when anyone hurt the Mercedes. This car wasn't her everyday car, she had her M3, but she took pride in the appearance of all of our cars. She was our resident mechanic and God help you if you scratched, dented or crashed a car. She pulled away from the house and started to race towards the local school.

"What are you so excited about, it's just school Rose." I muttered, rolling my eyes. She was driving faster than usual, and her hands were gripping the steering wheel tighter than usual. "What's wrong?"

"Alice told me that we had to get to school early today. Some big emergency." She rolled her eyes – she shared my view, what could be important at school?

"Is this about the new kid? I think that he is starting today." Emmett was excited

about the new boy, I didn't need to be Jazz to see that. I just didn't understand why, but he was always the same. People like me hated change. I was happy with the way things were and didn't want anything interfering with that. Rose was like that too. Emmett and Alice were polar opposites. They embraced new people and things and changes – I don't understand why, but what did that matter to me? Emmett was Rosalie's mate. She saved him from a bear and they had been together ever since. Jasper was with Alice. They found each other in the fifties, after years of searching – even if Jazz didn't know what he was looking for, Alice did. She had a gift, she could see the future and as soon as she woke up, she had vision after vision of her and Jasper, and eventually them meeting us and our future together. She had no human memories, but said that she would trade all of her old memories just for that first vision of Jasper. She made sure to sit and remember it at least once a week, she wanted to be sure not to forget, even if she knew that she wouldn't. Jasper also had a gift. He was an empath, he could feel and control the emotions of those around him. Unfortunately, he could feel our thirsts as well. We had all thought that he was weak, until Emmett found his singer and not only did he loose control, but so did Jasper. He's doing better now though, we all make sure to feed more regularly so that he can stay comfortable, well, as comfortable as any empathetic vegetarian vampire that goes to school with hundreds of hormonal tasty human everyday can be.

"This has everything to do with the new boy." Alice was bouncing in her seat, again. I don't care if we didn't sleep, mornings just weren't my thing.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on sweet?" I could not tell if Jasper really cared, he was staring absently out the window, studying the trees if I didn't know better, maybe even counting them. He was probably just humoring his wife.

"Nope." She was still bouncing. She's my sister and best friend, but sometimes I just want to strangle her. Then I remember that lack of oxygen won't kill my kind, and Jasper would kill _me_ if I did that, and I just sit back and think calming thoughts.

"Is Carlisle working today?" Carlisle was our leader, the father figure of our family and the voice of reason. He was married to Esme, the sweetest woman ever. She acted like our mother and always put up with us, no matter what we broke. Everything about her just screamed mum, and she was a wonderful replacement. I was closer to her than I was to my biological mother and had no problem calling her mum. She was a better mother than Renee ever was.

"In the night, him and Esme are going to go shopping for some new furniture today, apparently the boys messed up the lounge and table beyond her repair. Are you ever going to tell us what you too were doing?" Rosalie threw an annoyed glare at the backseat. She had been upset that Emmett wouldn't tell her what had happened. Alice didn't even know and as far as Rose knew, neither did I. What she didn't know was that I had gotten home earlier than she thought and had seen the whole thing. Jasper and Emmett had been shit talking each other as usual when Emmett let slip some really, really person details of his and Rosalie's sex life. Now Rose wasn't shy, but she would not want those kind of things floating around the household. Jasper had threatened to tell everyone else and then the match had started. The living room was a mess by the time the others had arrived, but Emmett had won and Jasper made true to his word. He hadn't said anything – I think that that was mainly because he was afraid of Rosalie, even if he would never admit that.

The school was coming into view now, and I started to mentally prepare myself for another monotonous day at Forks High. I tried to lift my spirits, if Alice said something new and interesting was going to happen today, it probably was. You never bet against Alice – I had learnt that the hard way. We pulled into the 'Cullen' car space. Nobody dared parking there anymore, they all got sick of Rosalie's glare if they did. She usually made the owner of the car who had stolen our spot move their automobile. We excited the car, Rose and Emmett heading to building four, the science block where the senior form classes were held. Jasper started to follow them, after kissing Alice on the cheek and taking a deep breath of unpolluted air. Alice and I started walking towards building eight, but before we got there she stopped me, turning me around and placing her hands on my shoulders.

"Bella, newbie will be in your history, your biology and your gym classes, alright?" She looked so serious. I nodded, silently questioning her why I needed to know this. "Just be prepared, alright? I can't tell you everything yet, but all we become clear, just trust me alright. Oh, and take these, you'll need them." I nodded again and she smiled brightly, her mood swings were worse than a pms-ing teenager. I got irritated when she got all mystic like this. She handed me a pair of gray leather gloves. They were stylish, but not to over the top for Forks High. She kissed my cheek and skipped to her form room, waving to me when she got to the door. I shook my head and walked to my room, entering the room and making my way to my seat in the middle of the room. I wished that I was at the back, it was so much harder for them all to stare at me when I was there, but they found a way. After being her for over a year, these humans still hadn't gotten over our looks. There stares pissed me off, if I was human, I wouldn't get a second glance. They didn't care what people were actually like. Angela Webber was so nice, she was caring and sweet, and she was the minister's daughter. But she was quiet and shy and hid behind her glasses. She had a small group of friends and was content with them, which was great for her, but because she wasn't the most attractive girl, and didn't wear revealing clothes, the 'popular' kids didn't bother giving her the time of day. Stupid sheep like humans. Everyone had to be the same. Than they look at people like me and Rose and Alice. We're beautiful to them, but we don't speak to them and if we do, it's usually just a few words or, in Rose's case, an insult, and they still hung off our every move, everything that we said. Just because we were pretty. Disgusting. I put the gloves that Alice had given me on. They fit perfectly, obviously, and didn't make a sound when a clenched my hand.

"So Bella, this Friday do you think – "

"No." I didn't even bother turning my head in Mike's direction. I had tried to let him down nicely, but this had gone on long enough. The boy just couldn't grasp the fact that I was not ever going to date. Everyone else had given up trying to date my siblings, it was obvious that they were all together. This is why it sucks to be the only unmated vampire in a coven of seven – I got all the unwanted offers. I was happy single. I had my family and I didn't need anything else. Plus, I couldn't give these humans what they wanted without killing them, or turning them.

He nodded solemnly and walked back to his seat next to Jessica Stanley, the girl that was quite obviously infatuated with him, but he didn't even notice. He was looking for romance in all the wrong places. I couldn't even say that he would get over me soon, because I had been saying that for months. Form went quick, with the teacher reading the announcements and doing roll call. I tried to block everything, nothing important was happening, just the same – like every other day. This existence wasn't really so bad, I get my family and I get to watch the world change. I hadn't left much behind as a human, so I had no one to miss. Having a child wasn't overly important to me, so now knowing that I couldn't didn't hurt too much. I didn't regret my change, I just wish that something _interesting_ would happen every now and again. But according to Alice something would happen today, and you never bet against Alice. The bell rang and I made my way to English. I didn't have to go far, my form was in the English block so I was just a few class rooms away. We started a new book – Romeo and Juliet. Classic. At least there was a positive aspect about Forks High, the english class reading list was good. Many of my favorite classics were on here, and it made my day much more tolerable. I spent the class reading to book at a human pace, I didn't want to finish it by the end of class, only stopping five minutes before the bell so that I could copy all of the notes on the board. I made my way to the history class, which was only upstairs, but stopped dead when I entered the door way. There was somebody sitting next to my seat, nobody ever sat next to me anymore. They wanted to date me, but they were scared of me too. This boy had an odd shade of copper hair, slightly tanned skin, and gorgeous green eyes. I felt like I could swim in them, their colour was so deep and -

_What the hell are you thinking? He is human, HUMAN._

This has to be what Alice warned me about. She didn't want me to be shocked and scare the boy. That was understandable. I put a smile on my face, careful to make sure that it didn't show any of my teeth, and went to my desk. He looked up at me from his folder, and his eyes widened. I made my smile bigger as I put my books on the desk and sat next to him. I took a breath, unaware that I hadn't been breathing, and stiffened. The scent coming off this creature was divine – but in the worst way possible, for him at least. He smelt like lavender and green apples and…. Sunshine? I don't know what urge was stronger, the want to hold him close and breath his scent in for as long as possible, or to snap his neck and drink him dry. Drinking him was winning. I clasped my hands together and thanked God that I gutted myself on animal blood last night and this morning. I don't think that I would be able to stop myself if I hadn't. I heard someone clearing their throats, and looked over to see the new boy smiling timidly at me, but wonder and confusion swam in his eyes. I tried my best not to scare him, for some reason, I wanted this human boy to like me, or at the least not to be afraid of me. He held out his large hand and said –

"Hello, I'm Edward Masen. It's a pleasure to meet you." His smile grew more and more relaxed as I smiled back at him.

_The pleasure is all mine – stop._

The blood thirsty monster in me was rearing her ugly head, and I tried to stamp her away. I would not kill a human. I put my hand in his, realizing that Alice must have seen this moment. I wonder if she saw my inner struggles? Would she have warned me if she had?

"I'm Bella Cullen. It's great to meet you too." I wasn't completely lying. His smell was great, and it might get easier with familiarization Maybe I would be able to enjoy it after a while. I pulled my hand from his and clenched it into a fist under the table. I looked towards the front. Holding my breath, I pretended to listen to the teacher giving his lecture on the Civil war but was really studying the boy next to me. He had dark rings under his eyes – probably from lack of sleep The whites of his eyes were slightly blood shot, again probably from lack of sleep. His features were mature, he only had a little bit of childish roundness left on his upper cheeks. His nose was straight and angular. His lips were a soft pink, full and pouty. The looked so soft.

_You could kiss him before you kill him. You would like that._

I shook my head, trying to fight away the monster. Why hadn't Alice warned me. Surely she would have seen me killing the boy. A little part of me still wanted to do it. Maybe I was strong enough. He moved then, sending a huge wave of his scent towards me. I stiffened again, I couldn't smell him, because I wasn't breathing, but I could feel his heat. He was to close. It would be so easy to do it now. But then I would have to kill the others. I could lure him out of the class room. Now or after class? It would be easier after. Maybe we wouldn't even have to leave. I could pick him up and run into the forest with him. I would tell him everything – he would know that this was nothing personal, not because of him, just his scent. Just the memory of it was enough for me to want to set my plan in motion. My phone vibrated against my leg. It was Alice,

_You won't kill him, you don't want to._

_He is special, he makes things better. Please trust me._

_Stop breathing._

_Keep thinking rationally – Carlisle, the family, you._

_Stay strong – Alice._

So she had seen this. I closed the phone and slid it back into my pocket. Edward was looking at it. He shifted his gaze up to mine and blushed. The delicious pooling of blood right under his delicate skin.

_Stay strong._

"Sorry." He whispered. "I didn't mean to pry." He turned away from me. Obviously he hadn't seen the text message, he would be running and screaming if he had – or laugh at me. He shouldn't feel bad, curiosity wasn't a bad thing, just as long as Edward didn't find out what I was – that wouldn't lead to anything good. But Alice said that he makes things better. What did that mean? What was there to make better?

"It's alright, just my sister," I smiled at him trying to reassure him. He snapped his head towards me and his eyes widened again. What had I done wrong? " Are you alright?" My voice was laced with concern. Probably too much concern.

He shook his head, like he was trying to clear it. " Oh yer, I'm fine." He looked at me curiously for a moment, I felt like I was being studied. I should have been more uncomfortable by that.

"Miss Cullen, Mr. Masen, are you paying attention?" The teacher asked. He was a stern old man who thought he was better than everyone else, especially those that he taught. If only he knew that a few of his students were older then him, I'd love to see his face.

"Of course sir, I was just telling Edward that I hoped that he was comfortable at the new school." My ability to lie had grown since I was human. Lying was a necessary part of my life. He nodded sternly and turned his attention back to the board, I turned mine back to Edward. He looked bored but was shooting me a glance out of the corner of his eyes, much like I was doing to him. Why was I so concerned about the boy, he was just that, a boy. I needed to speak to Alice. I glanced over towards him again, only to see him scribbling furiously on a piece of paper that he had ripped from his book. I watched in amazement as he finished writing and re-read the note. He rolled his eyes and looked over at me. I turned my head back towards the front of the classroom, not realizing that I had turned it. He pushed the paper towards me, than appeared to start to pay attention to the class. I opened it curiously, nobody had even passed me a note before. I felt like such an American teenager. Bring on the cliché's . He had surprisingly elegant handwriting for a teenage boy, one born in the 1990's at least. His writing was something that was more commonly found in the time period that I was human. It wasn't quite cursive, but some of his letters met. My respect for the human boy just increased. He had written –

So you have a sister? Do you have more siblings?

He was curious about my family? That was dangerous, but my insides got all warm and I almost broke my pen in my attempt to write an answer. I had to be cautious. I couldn't write anything that he could easily question.

I'm one of five. Emmett, Alice and I were all adopted by Esme and Carlisle. I'm the youngest, but I was the first that they adopted, then Emmett, then Alice. Jasper and Rosalie are actually twins, but they are Esme's niece and nephew. She fostered them from her half sister when she and her husband died a few years ago. Alice is with Jasper, and Emmett is with Rosalie.

I slid the paper back to him, and saw as he eagerly tore it open, reading with surprising speed. He raised an eyebrow, I am guessing that he had gotten to the part about the couples. Humans were to judgmental I mean, according to the story none of use were related by blood. He started to write again.

Wow big family. 

I had to repress a smirk.

Yer, what about you. And I'm guessing that you're shocked about the couples, right?

He nodded sheepishly after reading the note. I took the paper back.

Not surprised really. Everyone is. But none of us are related by blood, except for Rose and Jazz, so this isn't a big deal.

He took the paper back, wrote quickly and then returned it.

If you don't mind me asking, do your parents know? Are they supportive about that? And I'm an only child, a bit different from you.

It's alright. My parents know and they have stopped fighting it. They know that they love each other and they don't like secrets in the house. They are just happy that we told them, instead of having to find out a different way. I know how you feel about the only child thing, I was one before the adoption.

He was surprisingly easy to talk to, well, write to. I hadn't been expecting that. I was interested to know about his life and that scared me. I shouldn't be getting involved with a human – it was too risky. The scent was getting easier to handle. I had started breathing again, trying to familiarize myself. I would have to hunt again tonight, maybe even during lunch. If I had biology and gym with him, where we would most likely be sweating, his heart racing, than I would definitely be hunting during lunch. I had to play it safe.

He went to write back to me, but the bell rang. He looked crestfallen, and I'm sure that I did to. We packed up our things and put them into our bags. He looked at me again and smiled.

"Well, I guess that I'll see you later…"

"Let me see your time table – I'll see if we have any classes together." He smiled brightly and rummaged into his bad, producing a slightly crumpled piece of paper that had his time table on it. Alice was right, we had another two classes together.

"Apart from history, we also have the two afternoon periods together, biology and gym." I smiled up at him, careful not to show my teeth again. "I'll see you then." I walked, a little to fast, from the classroom. Taking a deep breath when I got outside, I steadied myself for my next class, and the onslaught of the scent of human blood that I would have to endure. Making my way to the foreign languages block, I tried to focus on nothing but my French class. But for the life of me, I couldn't get the boy, or his scent, out of my head. What made _him_ so important. He was just like the other humans, except that he smelled incredible. A part of me was dreading biology and having my throat flame when I was near him. I would be sitting next to him no doubt, the only free seat was next to me. The other, much larger, part of me was excited to be able to spend more time getting to know him. He was _interesting_ and seemed to be generally interested in me. That was something different. Trigonometry didn't do much to hold my attention, but lunch was a different matter. I met up with Jasper on the way to the cafeteria, and he agreed to go hunting with me after feeling my intense thirst. I was making him uncomfortable, and I didn't like that, but at least he too would be better prepared. We waited until everyone else had entered the cafeteria, and than ran to the forest. We only took on some dear, they were easy to kill and we couldn't get dirty. By the time that we got back to school, the bell was ringing and we had to get to class, or in my case, I got to go and see Edward. I walked faster than I probably should, again, but this time to Edward, instead of away from him. I was the last one in the class, and his face brightened when he saw me. I sat next to him, and his smile brightened even more, I thought his face would crack.

"Hello again." I smiled at him, quietly putting my things on my desk and hopping up to sit in my stool.

"Hi. So what are the chances that we sit next to each other in all of our classes together?"

I laughed at him, unsure of what to say. Mr. Banner started his lecture then, drawing the attention of the class, except for me. I wanted Edward to start to talk to me again, but he should take his notes, it wasn't fair for me to take away his opportunity to learn. _He_ only got one shot at high school. But then my troubles got solved for me, when he shoved a bit of paper at me.

Shouldn't you be taking notes, you might miss something important.

Ha. If only he knew.

Shouldn't you be? That's a little hypocritical of you.

His brow fell when he read my note.

I was in advance placement back at Chicago, I have already done all of this, my notes are in my old book, which I brought with me. I have an excuse. What's yours?

My mother tutors us sometimes, and I was also in advance placement at my old school. We did all of the basics of this before I moved, and Esme has helped us study it. I know this stuff like the back of my hand.

He re-read my note a few times, before responding eagerly.

Your new here too? When did you move?

We moved from Alaska at the beginning of last year. 

Have they stopped staring yet?

I had to stifle my laughter. He must hate the attention that he was getting. I wasn't to surprised. I had seen him walking to one of his classes, after my French class. He was avoiding everyone.

Don't like the attention ? They still do sometimes, but five times the amount of people came when we moved, plus the whole ' siblings dating' controversy happened. That caused so much attention I just wanted to leave all over again.

He nodded sympathetically. We spent the rest of class like that, talking about what happened when my family moved here, and what he was to expect. The bell rang and we gathered our things.

"You want me to show you where the gym is?" Why was I nervous? He was just another human.

_You keep telling yourself that, but do you believe what you're thinking?_

"Yer, I'd like that." He smiled at me and we headed towards the gym. "So what sport are we doing?" He seemed eager.

"Volleyball, sadly. There isn't even any sand."

"Volleyball? Really?" I nodded my head, with a sad smile on my face.

"You missed out on netball and soccer. We still have badminton, track and tennis to do yet." Sport was horrible, around the humans at least. We had to keep our speed and strength in check, and that was just a hassle.

"Track is good, I can do track." He looked at me. "I like to run." He smiled mischievously. I laughed and shook my head at him, and his heart started to beat faster. Had I scared him?

"Are you alright?"

"That's the second time that you've asked me that today." He was right, I was getting too caught up in Edward, and I had no idea why. The gym uniforms were horrible. The shorts were made of an itchy material and the shirts were unflattering. Of course, Edward managed to make them look good. How did he do that? I couldn't even do that. We were pairing up to dig the balls to each other. I never liked this part of the day, either nobody would ask me to be their partner and I would have to go by myself, or multiple people would ask me. I wasn't sure which was worse. Today was different though. Edward swiftly made his way over to where I was standing, expertly dodging Mike, Jessica and Lauren in the process.

"Hey." I said brightly once he had made his way to me.

"Hi." He said back hesitantly. "Do you want to be partners?" He started to study his feet. He was embarrassed, and it was adorable. I had to resist the urge to coo at him.

"I'd love to." He looked up at me with a hopeful expression and his heart started beating faster than usual. We started digging the ball to each other. I found out that not only was he really good at sport, but he was really competitive. There was a competition every class to see which group could do the most digs in a row, and he was determined to win. We did, of course, and the smile that lit up his face was worth pretending to stumble and chasing a ball around in the air for 43 digs. What was happening to me? After a game of volleyball, the final bell rang and we went to change. Edward and I walked to the car park in silence, stopping only when we came to his car. It was closer than mine.

"How are you getting home?" He was nervous again, and I couldn't understand why.

"My sister Rosalie drives us." I pointed over to the car. Rose was glaring in out direction, but the others were ignoring us, even though I knew that they were eavesdropping.

"Wow, nice car." That made Rose's glare stop.

"Thankyou. Rose does a lot of work on them. "

"Your sister knows cars?"

"Yer, she's one of the best mechanics that you'll ever meet." Now she was smiling.

"That's cool." He nodded thoughtfully, stuffing his hands in his pockets. There was an awkward moment, before Emmett called out –

"Come on Bella! Some of us are getting older here!" The others were all smiling and laughing and I couldn't help the few chuckles that escaped. Yer, some of us were getting older, but it wasn't him.

"That's Emmett. Don't pay him any attention, he's an idiot/" And he couldn't even get me back, not here at least. He shouldn't have been able to hear that. Edward laughed and nodded, saying "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." I smiled.

"Definitely." Walking to the car, I looked over my shoulder to see him staring at my retreating figure, before he saw that I was looking at him, and then got into his car and started the ignition of the silver Volvo. The others were all in the car by the time that I got there, so I slid in to the back seat, and we took off.

"So, Bella made a new friend." Emmett wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Shut up Emmett. Edwards nice."

"He's human." Rosalie's voice was stern and disapproving.

"So?"

"So? SO he could find out!" Of course I had thought about this, but I didn't want to dwell on that.

"I will make sure that he doesn't."

"Did any of you meet him yet?" I was hesitant, something in my gut was telling me that the way he smelt to me was different than how he smelt to the others.

"I met him in the cafeteria line." Alice was cheerful as always. "And no, he doesn't smell the same to me as he does you. What happened between you and him is like what happened between Emmett and that old lady."

"You mean he's my singer?"

"What!" Jasper and Emmett.

"He can't be. If he was your singer you wouldn't have been able to survive three classes without killing him."

"But Emmett, I had to go hunting after the first class, plus I had hunted earlier. And You were still only like, twenty years old when you met your singer. I'm over one hundred." It made sense that he was my singer, for I had never smelled anything like that before, not even when I was a newborn. It was good that I was practiced, and it was good that I wasn't a human drinker.

"Well than congratulations Bells! I didn't even think about resisting." We were home now, and after patting my head Emmett hopped out of the car and into the house, turning on the TV and starting up the x box. Jasper ran after him, shouting something about guns. Stupid army boy.

"Were going shopping Bella, do you want to come?" Alice really did want me to go, but Rosalie's glare told me that I wasn't really welcome. I gave Alice a hug and said "No Thankyou." Than ran up the stairs, turning on my stereo and letting Flyleaf fill my senses, while I tried not to think about Edward Masen and the drama he was inflicting on my life, without even realizing what he as doing.

Edward Point Of View –

I watched as her car speed out of view, that blonde drove like a mad woman, she was worse than me. I pulled out of the parking lot and sped back to the house. The drive only took about ten minutes going at my speed, and soon enough I was locking my Volvo and trying to remember where mum had put the spare key. After checking the under the mat, under the little statue of a man holding a welcome sigh and on the top of the door, I sighed and put my hand into the pot plant, almost immediately finding the key. It was covered in bark and dirt, obviously she hadn't thought that one through. I couldn't blame her for being a little distracted though. Losing dad had changed her. She wasn't the fun loving, organized family woman that she used to be anymore. She still cared for me greatly, don't get me wrong. She would still look after me and went to work. She cooked and cleaned and asked me how my day was. She got the groceries and banked her paycheck but she just wasn't fully _there _ anymore. It was understandable though, dad had been the love of her life, and now he was just….gone. She pretended to be alright, but I could read her like a book. I saw the way that she would sit at the table, staring at the door, like she was still waiting for him to come home. She checked her phone continuously like he was going to call her, saying that he would be late home again. She still brought his favorite kind of beer even though she didn't drink it and she wouldn't let me try any. Every Thursday she cooked tacos because they used to be dad's favorite food, and it had long ago become a tradition that we eat them every Thursday night. Typically, he was never home late those days. She thought she was fooling me, and I let her believe that she was, it seemed to help. He had died two years ago now. She had been depressed right after it happened, and neither of us liked to mention that time. She just slept all day and barely moved. I'd finally put my foot down. I had had enough of bringing her food that she would never eat and trying to clean her room but being yelled at. I had barged in there and thrown open the drapes, pull the sheets off of her and picked her up bridal style. I put her in the bathroom with clean clothes and told her that I wanted her ready in twenty minutes. She had done as I said and we went grocery shopping. We cleaned her room so that it was free of dust, but hadn't touched anything that Edward Sr. had ever owned or touched. After two years of living in that house, surrounded by memories, I had suggested that we move. I hadn't expected Washington. When I said moved, I meant a few blocks away. I didn't mean rainy, boring , three-thousand-population Forks Washington. But she wanted a big change. So we packed up and within the month we were on a plane here. We had gotten here last Thursday and she had freaked out and made us stop on the way from the airport to get groceries, realizing that we couldn't just order pizza like I had suggested, because it was Thursday night, and Thursday was taco night.

And I had thought that I was making progress. Maybe I should just face it. She might eventually stop crying every time a Van Morrison song played, but she would still be eighty years old eating tacos every Thursday night. Dad dying had affected me to, but I had my sulk and then decided to move on. Mum was still here and she was what was important. We hadn't been that close, the only thing we agreed on was baseball. He was a strict lawyer who fought all the wrong cases, if you asked me. He was harsh and very idealistic. He always worked late and I never really got the chance to get to know him. Whenever we had been alone together, everything had been awkward and we never really spoke, just simple small talk or arguments about everything – as if he didn't get enough of that at work. He thought that my 'dream career' was stupid, that piano was a hobby, not a career. He thought that I needed a hair cut and should have made more friends. He thought that I had bad taste in music and I dressed badly. The only thing that I could do right was hit a baseball, and I even got that wrong most of the time. We just didn't click. I wanted to play the piano for a living. I liked my hair long, and I don't care what he said, I would look funny with short hair and if I couldn't tame it now, I wouldn't be able to with short hair. I didn't want more friends, because I wasn't like most kids my age, or most people in general really. I had different interests and found most people at that stupid school boring. They all wanted to be the same and it irritated me that individuality was something to be ashamed of. I liked my music, muse and linkin park were awesome, and my clothes were comfy and they suited _me_. I was sad he was died and we loved each other, but that love was more of a 'he's my dad/son so I have to' kind of love.

The new house was a nice three bedroom, two story, two bath house near the forest. The forest was our neighbor on one side. The forest made me miss Chicago. You can't imagine that the sun is outside your window when you live next door to a forest in Forks. But it made her happy, so I shut up and dealt with this my own way. I ran up the stairs, started ITunes and made a start on my homework. Sad, I know, but the only other thing that I had to do was think about Bella, and I didn't want to do that. Homework would help me get my mind off her. But that could only tide me off for so long. I knew all of the answers and was done within the hour. I carried my laptop to the kitchen, starting on dinner and listening to the music, letting it take me away. Mum would be home by five, so we would just have an early dinner. That was a good thing, she would probably be tired. It was her first day at her new job today, and she was bound to be stressed. I let the steak marinate in the fridge and put glad wrap over the salad, putting it on the shelf above the steak. I still had too much time, so I paused ITunes and went to my piano, letting my fingers glide over the keys and thinking of nothing but the music. I was still there when Elizabeth walked through the front door.

"That sounds wonderful dear." She poked her head around the living room archway, smiling softly. She still had problems says the name Edward. That's why children shouldn't be named after their parents.

"Thankyou. Dinners ready, the steak just needs to be cooked. I'll do it now if you want." She smiled at me, nodding.

"Alright. I'll take a shower while you're doing that." I nodded, watching her as she walked up the stairs. I sighed, getting off the piano bench and going back to the kitchen, pressing play on ITunes and turning on the stove. The steaks were done at the same time that I heard the water turn off. I put them on their plates, then put those on the table. I got the salad and took off the glad wrap and put it between the plates. She came back to the kitchen, looking happier in her pajamas than she had in her stiff work clothes. "Smells great dear." I wish she would just say my name. I nodded my Thankyou and started to eat. I just wanted to escape to my new room. Everything was finally unpacked and I wanted to use that to my advantage. There had to be something up there that I could do.

"So how was your first day? Did you meet anyone new, or anyone nice I should say?" And now I was thinking about Bella again.

"Yer, everybody was nice. They all asked the same questions, how I was liking Forks, what Chicago was like, you know?" That had annoyed me. Obviously they would know that I had been asked that before. Wouldn't it be more comforting to ask a new question – make the new kid feel less pissed off. All except Bella, she hadn't asked me about Chicago or how I was liking Forks, and I was glad about that. She was different in all the good ways. "There was this girl, Bella, she was really nice. I have three classes with her. I sit next to her in History and biology and she was my partner in gym. We won the volleyball digging competition together. That was fun." And it had been. She had managed to make that ugly gym uniform look great, she could probably wear rags and make them look run-way worthy. I sound like a girl now.

"A girl?" My mother was surprised, I had never shown an interest in girls, I hadn't even had a girl friend. I had had offers, but they were never what I wanted. Dad had complained about that too. I rolled my eyes and smirked slightly.

"We're not like that mum, she's just my friend. Well, at least I think she's my friend." We had only just met after all. Maybe she was just putting up with me because I was new. Maybe she wanted to talk with me because, not meaning to sound stuck up, but everyone here seemed to want to talk to me. Maybe she just wanted the attention. Was she using me? She had seemed so nice….

One thing that Edward Sr.'s death had taught me was that you couldn't trust other people. The real kicker wasn't that he had died, it was how. But I was being paranoid now. Bella had been really nice and had been helpful. She hadn't dragged me around or even invited me to lunch like that Jessica girl had. She was obviously just talking to me for the attention. Bella had also seemed kind of shy. Jessica definitely had not been shy.

"Not yet, anyway." My head shot up to look at my mother. She was studying her steak with a slight smile on her lips.

"What was that?" I asked politely.

"Just my opinion is all. You've never been friends with a girl before, not since you were five. And you had a look in your eyes when you spoke about her. You like her." I blushed. That's right, blushed. Real manly Masen.

"I don't like her as anything more than a friend mum." I muttered. But I didn't, did I? I mean, she was obviously beautiful, everyone could see that. She was smart and caring and funny. She was very understanding and un-judgmental. She was different than other girls, or other people. She didn't seem to think like them, and I couldn't read her. I was usually very intuitive about people, what their intentions were. But it was like I was hitting a brick wall with her. I was confused, but I loved it. And just like that I had my answer, Edward Anthony Masen had his first real crush. Crap. "And so what if I do, she doesn't feel that way. Besides, she is beautiful, she probably gets guys falling for her all the time."

"Will you tell me about her?"

"I need to know stuff about her first." I smiled up at her.

"Well, tell me what you know."

"Her name is Isabella Cullen, but she likes to be called Bella. I only know that her real name is Isabella because her sister Alice started talking to me in the lunch line and told me. I don't think that she was born Cullen, or her biological parents last name aren't Cullen because Alice introduced herself as Cullen, and they aren't biologically related. She is one of five. Esme and Carlisle Cullen adopted her, then Emmett, then Alice. Rosalie and Jasper are Esme half sisters kids, but their parents died so Esme fostered them. They all lived in Alaska but moved here last year, so she was telling me what to expect. She doesn't like Volleyball or attention, and she was an only child before the adoption. She shy and funny and sweet and caring. She isn't like all the other people there, or in Chicago. She doesn't seem fake. She's also very pretty and her sister drives a kick-ass car. It's a really nice Mercedes. "

"And you don't like her at all?" My mother asked skeptically, with one eyebrow raised. I just shrugged my shoulders and kept on eating. I helped mum clean up after dinner, I washed and she dried. I played piano for a few hours while she read or watched TV. At nine, I stopped playing and kissed her cheek, telling her I was going to my room and that I would see her in the morning. I read until 11 when I fell asleep to the sound of the rain on the window and dreamed about Bella for the night.

/*&*/

I dreamt of her. Yep, I dreamt of the girl that I had only known for a day. The dream wasn't anything over exciting, except for the fact that Bella was there. All we did was walk through the forest, the one outside my window. Whenever I went to talk to her, she would turn to me and put her fingers to her mouth. I all ways stopped talking after that, even if I wanted to talk to her. After what seemed like hours, she stopped walking and sat on the ground. She pulled a pen and a piece of paper just like the one from my history note book. She wrote 'you'll figure this out soon enough,' I went to ask her what she meant, but she put her finger to her mouth again. I took the pen and paper from her and wrote my question for her on the paper. She smiled up at me and shook my head, writing 'It's time to get up now.' And than I woke up to the around of my phone alarm going of. The red jumpsuit apparatus was blaring from the speakers. I groaned and rolled over, slamming the snooze button and dropping my arm. I tried not to go back to sleep, but my subconscious wanted Bella. Eventually, I remembered that if I got up, I could see the real Bella, and that got me up. I rolled out of bed, almost falling on the floor, and slouched into the bathroom to take a shower. Dressing in black jeans, and a loose green and black shirt, finished with my ever-faithful Chuck Taylors, I made my way to the kitchen, where I found my mum was eating toast. I was late though, or more so I just wanted to get to school early, so I kissed her head, wished her a good day and grabbed an apple. I ran back up the stairs to get my bag and shoved my note books in there, then made my way to the Volvo. Speeding to school with Linkin Park blaring from the speakers, it only took me eight minutes to get to the car park. I was one of the first ones there. I turned the music down but didn't leave the car. It was warm in here and I would take that over the mist outside any day. After about ten minutes, the sleek Mercedes pulled up a few spaces away from me, and I watched as first Rosalie and Emmett excited the car. Stepping out of my own car, I watched as Jasper came out next, holding open the door for little Alice. Bella excited the other side, keeping her head down until a light breeze blew past me and towards her, and her head shot up towards me and she smiled brightly. That was weird, but it had to be some freaky coincidence, right? The others walked away, but Bella followed at a slightly slower pace. I walked briskly over to her, catching up to her fast enough.

"Hey Bella, how was your night?"

"Hey! It was good, did you sleep well?" Ahead of us, Alice snorted and her brother Emmett chuckled.

"Yer, strange dreams though." She looked at me curiously, but I just shook my head at her. "Don't worry."

We walked in silence to the english building, and she waved goodbye to me when she got to her class. I smiled at her, and continued down the hall.

"Hey Edward." Alice bounced up to me.

"Oh, hey Alice, it's nice to see you again." She looked like a pixie, she was tiny and her features were so delicate, they were straight and angular. Bella's were to, which was odd. Now that I think about it, all of them had very straight features, they were all very attractive, and I wasn't gay.

"It's great to see you too! Did your first day go alright? Was Bella nice in biology and gym?" She had a strange look on her face, a slight smirk and a twinkle in her eye, like she already new the answer or something – like she was just asking me to be polite.

"Yer, we were partners in volleyball."

"Oh that's good, well I'll talk to you later." She smiled at me again and hugged me tightly, before running off to her form class. I stood there, shocked, before running to class, I was almost late now. I went to my seat and tried to ignore all of the stares that I was still getting. Hopefully, they would finish by the end of the week, but according to Bella, it would be at least two. I was still a little shocked by Alice's hug, I barely knew her and she was already hugging me. Was she always that….friendly? She had been really cold too. Her arms had been very, sturdy. They were too hard for a seventeen year old girl. I shook off my curiosity and concentrated on the announcements. English blurred past, and I was finally in history with Bella. She had beaten me there today, and she was sitting up straight with her face blank. She turned in my direction when I sat down and smiled at me again.

"How was english?"

"Boring and respective, you?"

She smirked. "Pretty much, at least we get to read Romeo and Juliet." She smiled wistfully. So she was a fan of the classics, that didn't surprise me. Maybe that was where so got her vocabulary, she spoke so refined and used words that most teenagers these days didn't use.

"So you like classic books?" She nodded, smiling brightly. She never smiled to widely though, she never showed her teeth. I don't understand why, if she was really happy. She probably had straight and perfectly white teeth, Alice did, and they were similar in their features so far. "What other books do you like?" She shrugged.

"Older books, you know, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Victor Hugo. What about you?"

Now I shrugged. "Your favorites are alright, but romance isn't my favorite thing to read. I like mystery and Sci-Fi more." I blushed slightly. What was with me? I never blushed. "I like Anne Rice, even if the stuff she writes about is completely far fetched." Bella had stiffened in her seat, her mouth open slightly in shock. Had I said something wrong? "Bella, are you alright?" I put my hand on her, but pulled back almost immediately. When I touched her, a spark that felt like electricity charged through me, starting at my hand and flowing up my arm and around my torso. It was incredible, it was comforting and made me feel lighter than I had in years, but I was so shocked by its sudden appearance, that I pulled my hand back. She had snapped her head towards our connected skin, and gasped. Did she feel it to?

"Oh, yer I'm fine. I just saw something strange outside the window." Her voice was tight. I could tell that she was lying, but I didn't understand why. What was wrong with Anne Rice? I like her vampire stories. She nodded at my raised eyebrow and turned to the front of the class, pretending to listen. I saw her glancing at me from the corners of her eyes and chewing on her plump bottom lip. The motion had captured my gaze. They looked so soft and. I was onslaughted with pictures of those lips attached to mine, biting and sucking and -

_Stop thinking about her lips, stalker._

I shook my head, trying to stop my incredibly teenage thoughts. The teacher was still droning on and on about a subject that I already knew about. He finished after about twenty minutes, twenty minutes of sideward's glancing and temptation to write notes. He gave us a worksheet to work on, and told us that we could talk quietly after we had finished, Of course, everyone else started talking straight away. I looked towards Bella hopefully, but she was already working on her sheet, and she was working really, really quickly. Not wanting to be upstaged, I started to work, flying through the answers, I had done this stuff in freshman year. This school was so behind. I miss Chicago. But there was no Bella there, only mindless followers. Mind you, the followers were here too but Bella was here, and she made everything better. I can't believe that I just thought that, but it was true. She was different, I already knew that, but I'm starting to think that there was something else different about her. Not just her personality or her interests, but her and her family. They were all freakishly graceful, including Emmett, who was oversized and looked like a twenty year old. They were all attractive and really pale, even more pale than the other people in this town. They all had perfect features and the same gold coloured eyes. I hadn't realized that about Bella at first. I swear her eyes had been black in history, but in biology they were gold, then in gym the were a darker gold. Either I was crazy, or there really was something strange going on. Bella was the same temperature as her sister, I had noticed after our hands had made contact and she was really old fashioned, her taste in books, her style of speech and the way she wrote. She wrote in cursive and it looked like something from an earlier decade – as in the early 1900's. I was probably just reading into things too much now though. Maybe I should stop with the Anne Rice, she was making me read to much into everything.

By the time that I had finished my sheet, I looked over at Bella and she was done too. She was looking at me curiously, biting her lip and staring at my sheet.

"What?"

"You really know your stuff when it comes to the civil war." I nodded sheepishly.

"Advance placement classes." I shrugged. I had been advanced in everything apart from Spanish, and that was a boring subject though. Why did I need to learn Spanish, I wasn't going to move to Spain was I? She was obviously smart to, but I was curious about her. I wanted to know about her interests, her favorite kind of music, her past.

"You do too I see." Looking over her sheet, I saw that she had gotten all of the questions right. "How do you know so much about the civil war?"

"I was in advance placement for history at my old school and my brother Jasper is a civil was fanatic. He knows everything about it and is constantly reading history books trying to find out more, or comparing them. He also tells you little trivia facts about the war at random times, which are sometimes annoying but helpful." She laughed, and I laughed along with her. She had a beautiful laugh, it sounded like bells and joy, which was very fitting considering her name.

"So how come Jasper knows so much about the civil war?"

"He and Rosalie were born in Texas, so when he heard about the war from his dad, he got really interested. He just….hasn't gotten over the phase yet." She laughed again, and I smiled. "So what about you, any freakish hobbies or anything like that?"

"I play the piano, a lot. That and music in general, my IPod goes everywhere with me." I smiled and she nodded, her eyes lighting up.

"You play the piano?"

"Mm-hmm, I started when I was five, and just kept on going."

"So you didn't go through the winey 'I want to quit' phase?" She laughed.

"No, it took ages for me to even convince my mum to let me take lessons. I had already tried the violin and the cello, so she didn't want to waste more money. But I didn't give up and eventually she ended up just buying me the piano, instead of driving me to the studio everyday." I laughed at the memory, that was the best birthday. "Do you play anything?" She shook her head.

"No, I was always the more literate one, the hale twin's are the more musically inclined one's." She hadn't stopped smiling since the beginning of the conversation, and I liked the fact that I had put that smile there just a little bit too much. "So what kind of music do you like?" She asked.

"Alternative, you know, punk, emo, progressive rock. I also like indie, classical and jazz." I smiled shyly, nobody else liked my kind of music, and I had been picked on because of that more than once. But she liked the piano, and I didn't know anyone else who did, apart from my mum and aunts, but they didn't like the bands I did. Since when do I care what people think about me or my music tastes? The girl was making me crazy, but I was kind of willing to let her.

"I like that kind to!" She started bouncing lightly in her seat. She was a lot more like Alice than I had seen. "Have you heard of Flyleaf?"

I nodded. "I like flyleaf, I've never heard a voice like hers before, it's so different to most of the stuff you hear these days."

"Exactly!"

We spent the rest of the hour talking about different bands, we hadn't even made a dent in my album collection before the bell went, and I begrudgingly packed up my things and made my way to Trigonometry. This class was possible worse than Spanish. I tried to focus, I really did, but Bella managed to invade my mind again. At least I wasn't dreaming about her. There was something about her that captured my interest like nobody else even had. I hadn't felt this way before, this constant nagging in the back of my head that was wondering what she was doing, wanting to spend more time together, wishing that she was here so that we could make fun of this school and the teachers because we already knew what they were attempting to teach the other students, most of whom cared a lot less than I did. I wanted to be closer to her, I wanted to be her friend and maybe even more than that. I wanted her to want that too. At least I saw her again on the way to Spanish. She was leaving the foreign languages block and heading towards me with her head focused on the ground. She was heading my way, so she probably had a math class. She waved and said "Hey!" when she saw me, and I did the same in return. For the few moments that we were together, that pull in my head and chest went away, but as soon as she left my range of view, the tugging was back and I slouched my way to the classroom, smiling that there was a seating plan and I had a desk to myself. Jessica Stanley was looking at me from her desk on the other side of the class room and she smiled brightly when I looked up at her, waving her fingers flirtatiously and I resisted the urge to gag or roll my eyes. Lauren was next to her, and she was glaring at he 'best friend' but smiled and pouted her flat lips at me when I looked at her. Those two thought that everyone either wanted them, or wanted to be like them. And some people did, but not everyone. They thought they were above beautiful, but they wore to much make up, which really just lessened their beauty and besides, they had nothing on Bella. If only she were here.

_Stop thinking like that, you'll see her at lunch._

Bur she wasn't there yesterday, just like her brother Jasper. I had seen them talking while I was walking to the cafeteria, and he had a pained look on his face. I hadn't seen them after that, maybe he was sick. I had made my way to the food line with my hood up and my IPod blasting 'Something' by Escape The Fate when I had felt someone tapping my back. It was Alice, she introduced herself and welcomed me to Forks. She said that I knew her sister Bella Cullen from my history class and I had been so excited that Bella had mentioned me to her sister. I had gotten my food, riding my happy Bella cloud and talking about the town with Alice, then had been dragged to eat lunch with Mike, Jessica, Eric and their friends.

Hopefully she would be at lunch today. I might be able to talk to her again, at least I would be near her. My table was only a few away from hers and her families. Now I was acting like a stalker, again. Maybe one day I would be able to eat with her at lunch. Trigonometry was boring, everything here I had already done. I forgot my hoddie so I couldn't listen to my IPod, and I was cold. Lunch came fast enough though, and I was the first one from the classroom, quite a feat considering I was in the back corner of the room. Turns out that Bella was looking forward to lunch too, as I was walking past the foreign languages building on the way to the cafeteria, she exited the building and almost ran into me.

"Oh I'm so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going, hey Edward." If anything, she looked even more upset when she realized that it was me. I touched her hand and told her that it was alright. The electricity was back in full force, but this time neither of us pulled away. She sighed and closed her eyes, but she must have realized what she was doing because she opened her eyes and straightened up, but still didn't take her hand away. She was still cold, which meant that something was definitely up. The heating in the foreign languages block was up really high, I was warm there and I had no jacket, she was wearing a long sleeved shirt too, but also had a vest overtop and a jacket that almost went to her knees. She would have been hot there, but her skin was still freezing.

She was still smiling contently, as I was, even if I was confused. "Are you alright, your really cold." There went that smile. She widened her eyes and she pulled her hand away, looking over my shoulder for a moment before looking back to stare into my eyes, making me loose my train of thought. I had a feeling that she was doing that on purpose.

"I'm always cold, genetics." She smiled gently.

"Oh, that's weird, Alice is always cold to. Are you to related biologically?" I pretended to be confused, but she saw through me. She shrugged easily enough, but her shoulder were tense. She was either a really bad liar, or just didn't like lying to me. She had done fine yesterday trying to convince or teacher that she was asking me about settling here.

"Coincidence I guess, after living in Alaska for so long, we are just always cold skinned." She laughed lightly. "I wasn't like this when I lived in Chicago." She smiled wistfully. That caught my attention, she hadn't told me that she had lived there. Was she lying? No, she didn't even seem to realize that she had said it, and I trusted her, I don't know why, but I did. Plus, she just contradicted herself, she said genetics, but then blamed Alaska.

"You lived in Chicago?" My voice was louder than I had intended and she looked at me, startled.

"What?" She asked. I pulled her away from the door way doorway, we were getting in the way of everybody else that was trying to leave the classroom.

"You lived in Chicago?" We started to walk towards the cafeteria now.

"Oh, yer I did, before my parents died I lived there with them. The Cullen's where living there and had been talking about adoption, they decided that they were definitely going to do it. They found me just before they were going to leave and they adopted me. They moved with me up to Alaska and we have been there ever since. I was five."

Wow. "What were your parents names? You don't have to answer, I'm being rude – "

She smiled softly and shook her head. "It's alright, they were Charlie and Renee Swan. I was born Isabella Marie Swan." Her tone darkened and her eyes narrowed when she spoke about her parents, and she all but sneered her last name. But she had had such a beautiful name, I mean, her name now was beautiful too, but I could imagine her last name as Swan. She was graceful and beautiful and caring, just like swans are supposed to be.

"You don't like your parents?" I honestly didn't want to offend her, but I was so curious, I couldn't stop the questions. She looked startled by my question.

"Sorry," She said. "I didn't realize that I still said their names with such distaste. I don't remember a lot, but what I do remember, I don't particularly like." Seeing my questioning and somewhat angry glance, she continued hurriedly. " Don't get me wrong, they didn't….hurt….. me, they just weren't very good parents. They weren't ready to be parents and they weren't responsible enough to take care of me, or themselves really." I nodded thoughtfully, I could understand inattentive parenting, but I got the feeling that her case was a little more than overworking and arguments. We were at the cafeteria by now, and her sister Rosalie came up to us and grabbed her wrist. She started to pull on it and glared at her sister, but mostly at me.

"Come on Bella." Rosalie said, pulling on Bella's wrist. Bella had a slight scowl on her face, and her lips were moving very fast. Rosalie looked at her sister, than intensified her glare and looked at me again. I smiled sweetly at her.

"Hello Rosalie." She raised one eyebrow than rolled her eyes and pulled Bella away. Bella turned around to look at me, biting her lip and trying to hold in her giggles. She nodded at me, before almost tripping on a stick that Rosalie had stepped over, in four inch heels no less. I stayed to make sure that she was alright, than turned to the cafeteria and made my way through the students, lining up and hoping to get some food and go to my car before Mike or Jessica or Lauren or Eric could get me to sit with them. I wasn't fast enough. I made my way to the table with Eric chatting to me about the new action movie that was at the cinemas. I didn't care what he said, the movie was probably shit, and I wouldn't be going to see the movie with him. What kind of a name was 'Punch Face' anyway? Where was the creativity? At least the table was near the Cullen-Hale table. Bella and Jasper stiffened as I walked past her, and Rosalie glared at me. Alice poked her and she turned her glare on her. What was she pms-ing or something? Was she always this angry or did she just hate me and her sisters. Maybe she was a no contact kind of person. Not my problem.

_No, she's Bella's problem._

And now I felt like Rosalie was my problem too.

"Rose," I heard Bella mutter.

"What, just because you….." I was pulled away before I could hear the rest of the conversation. Just because Bella what? There wasn't a reason that I could go back over and listen to the rest of their conversation. I could ask Bella later, but would she tell me?

"So Eddie – " Mike said as I sat at the table.

"Don't call me Eddie."

"Right….Edward, are you coming to the movies on Saturday?"

"No." Did they really think that I would?

"Why not Edward, we could have so much fun." Lauran's nasally voice reached my ears, and I had to resist the urge to cover my ears and sing. She started to lightly caress my hand with her own, but I pulled mine away before she could reach any further than half way. She pouted and looked confused.

"Because I can't." I need a liable excuse. They were all looking at me curiously. " My mum needs my help, we haven't fully unpacked yet."

"You could do it on Sunday, or Friday night." Eric was starting to wine, that was kind of weird.

"No, I have to do it on Saturday, and I want to."

"You want to spend your time unpacking?" Jessica started to giggle. I narrowed my eyes at her. I don't think that any of them would appreciate my real reason – 'No, I just don't want to spend any extra time with you.'.

"I want to spend the time with my mother."

"You want to spend time with your mother, instead of us?" Why was she so confused?

"Yes."

"Why."

"Because she's my mother, and I love her, and she's also my friend. I want to spend my time with her, why is that such a big deal?"

Mike was sniggering, Eric had his eyebrow raised and Jessica had her mouth open.

"What?" I asked. They were annoying me. So what if I wanted to spend time with my mother? She was my best friend – granted, I didn't have many friends, but I was happy that way.

"Nothing." They all looked away and started talking between themselves, occasionally glancing at me. I looked over at Bella, and she was staring at me with her eyebrows raised, as was the rest of her table. I bushed, again, under their intense gaze. My glare disappeared and I smiled at her, before turning back and picking at my food, happy that she was looking at me but wondering why she was. Had she heard me from there? Did she think that I was a freak because I would prefer to spend time with my mother than with these teenagers? Why did I care that she thought that about me – if she did. I put my IPod in my ears and turned on Mayday Parade. Only ten more songs and then I would have two uninterrupted hours with Bella. I am way in over my head.


	2. Chapter 2 Gym Her House & Major Whitlock

**Alright, sorry for the delay but I didn't want to update until I had another few chapters writen, and now I do. Thankyou for reading, I do not own 'Interview With A Vampire', 'How I Met You Mother', 'Law & Order' or the information on Jasper from 'Eclipse' or The Twilight Series. Or any noticeable bands.**

Previously – I was in way over my head.

Chapter Two - Gym, Her House & Major Whitlock

I didn't leave my seat once the bell signaling the end of lunch rang. I had noticed that Bella and her family didn't leave either and wondered if Rosalie was still mad. She was glaring at Bella, who had a scowl on her face, and was leaning across the table towards her. Her lipstick coated lips were moving fast, faster than I would expect. She shouldn't be able to make real words talking at that speed. I started to fiddle with my IPod, turning the volume all the way down to try and hear what they were saying. There was almost no one left in the cafeteria now so this should have been easy, but I couldn't here a thing. Sparing a glance over at her table, I could see that Rosalie's lips were still moving, faster than before, and she was shooting glances at me all the while. Something that she said must have pissed Bella off, because she leaned forward and starting talking to Rosalie. She looked like she would be shouting, but I still couldn't hear anything and her lips were moving really fast. Bella shoved away from the table, leaving a gaping Rosalie and her tray behind her and then walked up to me.

"You know the Bell's rung right?" She smiled softly.

"Oh, I hadn't realized" I lied easily, and she raised her eyebrows, but didn't question me.

"Are you going to go to class?"

"Oh right." I smiled at her, pulling my IPod out of my ears and grabbing my bag.

We left the cafeteria together in silence, we were almost to the science building before I couldn't take the silence anymore.

"So what were you and Rose arguing about?" I tried to make my voice nonchalant, but I don't know if that worked. She snapped her head around to look at me, fear swimming in her eyes.

"Did you hear what we were talking about?"

"No, you were talking to softly and fast. I couldn't hear a thing, plus I had my IPod on."

"Oh right," She looked like she was trying too stifle her smile. She couldn't know about the music being turned down could she? No, there was no way. "So how did you know that we were talking, or that what she was saying was upsetting?"

Didn't she realize that Rosalie seemed to hate me, or was she like this to everyone, except Emmett? "Well, she was angry before lunch, she was glaring at you, me and Alice when I walked past you at the beginning of lunch and at the end of lunch she was glaring at you again and you looked upset, then told her off."

She shrugged. "Me and Rose are similar in the fact that we don't like change, but she's worse than me. She doesn't like the fact that I made….friends with the new kid." She frowned to herself and I felt my world light up. She thought that we were friends. Bella Cullen saw me as a friend! Her eyes widened though and she turned to look at me, raising one hand as if she were about to touch me but then thought better. I wished that she would. "I mean, that I am talking to you. I mean…."She was stuttering and she looked torn." I see you as my friend, but I don't want you to feel like you have to be mine – I'm not good at this whole 'social being' thing." She laughed awkwardly and turned away from me, focusing on the path ahead of her.

"Don't worry about that, I'm no good at being around most people either. And I think that we're friends." I said shyly, but she smiled brightly, finally showing me her teeth. They were perfectly straight and white. Surprise, surprise.

"Good." She nodded, and we made our way to class in silence. It was good to know that she was one of those people who did not feel the need to fill the silence with mindless small talk, we could be quiet but perfectly comfortable and content like that. I love it.

I was concerned that Bella was fighting with her family because of me though, I didn't want to cause any trouble for her, and it seemed like that was exactly what I was doing. She didn't seem overly concerned though, maybe Rosalie was like this a lot. We took our seats in biology just before the bell rang, so Mr. Banner couldn't be too angry. He started the lecture, but just continued from yesterday. Wasting no time, I tore a page from my note book and wrote – So when do you think he will start anything interesting? And shoved it towards her. She took it ; eagerly reading the note and smirking, before pulling a pen from her pocket and responding, before sliding the note back towards me. How did she manage to make paper graceful?

That depends what you up to, but if you were in advanced freshman than probably, Ohh, next year.

I looked at her, pouting, and then groaning and letting my head fall onto the desk. She giggled and when I looked up, her face was hidden in her hands. She looked up at me, and she was a vision to behold. Her golden eyes were sparkling with humor and joy. Her full lips were spread wide across her face in a heart breaking smile, and I was glad to see that she was still showing me her teeth. I stared at her, wanted to smile back at her but unable to get my body to do anything that I wanted. Her smile dimmed and she looked at me curiously, before a look of shock and recognition crossed her features and she stopped smiling altogether.

"Sorry." She whispered, crestfallen, then looked back at the front of the classroom.

"What are you apologizing for?" What was she sorry about, being beautiful?

She shook her head but took the paper back from me writing another question about my music taste. I was glad that she was 'talking' to me again, and responded eagerly. But I was still confused as to why she was sorry. Biology went quickly, as does all the time I shared with her. At least I got to go to gym with her. We packed up our things, and started to make our written conversation verbal. Looking over her shoulder, I saw that Mike and Jessica were talking to each other, but shooting glances at me and my lab partner. Jessica was glaring at Bella. I felt a protective instinctive rise in me and I had to resist the urge to wrap my arms around Bella and protect her from Jessica. I settled for glaring back at her, and her eyes widened in shock when she was my facial expression.

"What are you glaring at?" Bella asked curiously, looking over her shoulder and seeing the two annoying teenagers. "Oh, right." She smiled tightly. We started to walk from the block and towards the gym. "So I'm guessing that you don't particularly like Jessica and Mike?" I laughed at her comment. How had she guessed? Insert the sarcasm.

"Oh, what gave me away?" I put my hand to my chest and looked at her in mock horror. She started giggling and put her hand over her mouth, shaking her head and closing her eyes. I could see Alice and Jasper, standing up ahead of us. Alice was smiling at us and bouncing, she seemed to do that a lot. Jasper was looking us, his head tilted to the side slightly with a slight smile on his face, but he also looked curious and calculating. Alice energy must be wearing off on him. We parted ways at the locker rooms, but what hadn't escaped my notice was that Jessica and Mike were walking behind us, close enough to listen to our conversation. Bella had realized this to, because she had stopped talking about the others and steered our conversation back to music. I had seen Mike and Jessica's faces, and they looked confused when we were mentioning band names. They probably had no idea what we were talking about. Mike had followed me to the change rooms, and was getting closer and closer, sparing a glance over at the girls locker rooms, I could see that Jessica was doing the same to Bella. As soon as we were in the locker room I went to a stall and changed, I didn't usually bother about getting changed in the bathrooms, but I just wanted to get Mike away from me. When I was done, I left the stall only to see Mike dressed in his uniform and leaning against the sinks, waiting for me.

"So Edward." He began. "What's up with you and Bella? She never talks to anyone apart from her family, she even ditched me, and now as soon as you come, she's all open and friendly and walking you to classes." I was elated to learn this. Out of everyone in the school, even if the school was rather small, Bella had chosen me to speak to. She decided to open up to me and I was not complaining, I was just confused. Maybe she didn't like the uniformity that most of the other people here seemed to follow, and could tell that I wasn't like that, much like I could tell with her?

"I don't know, were just friends. What do you care about me and Bella?"

He smirked, but looked confused. "Well, I was just curious. Why would she suddenly go out of her way to be nice, no offence or anything man." He shrugged but then smiled. "On the plus side, if she's talking to people and opening up, maybe she will finally go on a date with me." I stiffened.

"Have you asked her before?" I tried to play cool, act like I didn't care about him and Bella dating, but in all honesty, the very thought of my only friend apart from my mum in this town and the girl that I liked, going out with Mike Newton of all people, sickened me. But Bella was a shy and quiet person, she obviously didn't like Mike in anyway, our earlier conversation proved that.

"Course' I have."

"Has she ever gone out with you?"

"No."

"Than why would she now? No offence man." I mimicked him, than walked to my locker and put my clothes in. I went to the court, wanting to see Bella again and trying to stop my inner victory dance. She chose me. Bella was already waiting anxiously when I went to the court, but her head snapped towards me when I was halfway across the court towards her. She walked towards me, with determination in her step.

"Hey!" She said. Her eyes were tight.

"Hey, are you alright?" I was much more concerned than I should be about a person I mad met only one day ago.

"I'm fine. Do you want to be partners again? I reckon that we could make it to fifty today." She laughed. I joined her laughter and nodded. We walked to the coach and got our volley ball, then walked back to where we had met and started to practice. Bella tripped over her own shoe after about five minutes of practice, but didn't fall. I was scared that she had hurt herself, and without think about the consequences I ran over to her, forgetting about the volleyball that was flying in the air towards where I had just been, and grabbed her still stumbling shoulder.

"Bella! Are you alright?" My voice was laced with panic and concern, but I couldn't seem to control myself. She laughed at my over-the-top concern and told me that she was fine, that she was always a klutz.

I raised my eyebrow at her. "You're always pretty graceful Bella. I've seen you trip twice now, but one of those was over a stick that you didn't see coming." I tried not to smirk. "You were too busy looking at me."

"Hey, I was laughing at what you said, I was being a good friend!" I shrugged.

"Whatever, I was just being a good friend by saving you from them gym floor, but you laughed at my panic." She laughed again, and I could spend the rest of my life listening to that sound.

_Wow – where did that come from? You haven't even known her for forty eight hours and you're all like 'the rest of my life'. _

But that was just a catch phrase, right? I didn't really mean that, right? No I couldn't, I barley even knew her. Alright, that wasn't entirely true, I knew her better than anyone else I had ever known, except for my mum. But still, I couldn't want of spend the rest of my life with her. I was starting to scare myself, so I reluctantly (again scaring myself.) let go of her to go and get the ball that had rolled towards Lauran and Jessica. I jogged towards them, grabbed the ball and ignored their annoying "Hey Edward" 's, than jogged back to Bella. She was glaring at Lauran and Jessica. She couldn't have heard what they said, and why was she glaring? She was so confusing, but I wouldn't change that.

We won the digging competition , we got 51 digs, better than what she joked that we could get. After another volleyball game, the bell rang signaling the end of class. Almost everyone was covered in sweat, the girls make up running and their hair was everywhere, but not Bella. Of course, she didn't wear make up, but she wasn't sweating and her hair was still perfectly smooth and shiny. She didn't look tired or flustered, and she wasn't breathing heavily. How was that? She hit the ball more than any of the other girls. I filed that away for later consideration, there was definitely something different about that girl.

Everyone went to the locker rooms to shower and change. Mike was avoiding me, talking to Eric instead. That just boosted my mood even higher than it already was. I showered and changed quickly, hoping to catch up with Bella before she left. I knew that Rosalie was impatient, and Bella was kind, she wouldn't want to annoy her sister any more. I stubbed my toe when I ran to the locker, hit my elbow on the locker after I put my pants on and somehow punched myself in the jaw, effectively biting my tongue whilst trying to put on my shirt. This is why I don't dress in a hurry. But it was worth it, because when I was finally dressed and had limped my way to the court, she was still there, sitting on the bleachers and flipping her phone absently. I walked up to her, the tugging in my head and chest retreating with each step.

"Hey."

"Hey," She smiled softly. "So, did Mike come up and talk to you? Before gym?" I smirked and nodded.

"Yer, how'd you know that?"

She smirked. "After you went to change he can up and asked me out, again." I stiffened. "I mean, I said no but you would think that he would take my hint after all of this time. But he said that because I was talking to you, I would probably be more open to him."

"I told him that you probably wouldn't go out with him. Then I threw his own words back to him and shoved them in his face, it was fun." I smiled and she laughed. I grabbed her hand and helped her from the seats, basking in the electricity but letting go once she had her footing.

"He's just lucky that he doesn't appeal to me." She muttered.

"And why do you say that, what's wrong with you?" There was nothing wrong with her. Any guy would be lucky to 'appeal' to her.

"I just don't think that we would be a good match. We're too….um….different." She was smiling widely now, chuckling at her own joke. I looked at her curiously.

"Well, I'm glad that you said no too him, I can't stand that guy, and as your friend, I would have to talk to him." She laughed at me.

"I wouldn't make you do that." We joked about all the cons of dating Mike until we got to the car park, where she stopped short and said. "Oh they did not."

"Bella, what's wrong?" I turned around and followed her direction of sight. The car space where her car usually is was empty, and none of her siblings, or their car, could be seen.

"They left without me!"

"Wow, Rosalie really was upset, wasn't she?" She nodded. "Sorry." She turned her head to me and cocked her head to the side.

"What do you have to apologize for, you didn't do anything wrong."

"The reason she is angry at you is because of me."

"Not completely, she's angry at me too. Plus, me and Rose have never completely gotten on well. I mean, we can talk and have 'girl time' as Alice calls it together, but we are just too different. I am much closer to Alice, even if we are pretty much polar opposites. We just click."

I nodded, I had expected that. Alice was always much more happy, and she seemed to really care for Bella. At least, that's what I had picked up from the two or so conversations I had with her. I mentally rolled my eyes at myself.

"Well where do you live, I'll give you a life home, it's the least that I can do." Her eyes widened.

"Oh you don't have to do that, I can walk, I don't want to be a pain."

"Bella you are not being a pain, I want to give you a lift, now get in the car." We had stopped conveniently close to me car, so I walked over, unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for her. Her eyes widened and she raised an eyebrow, still staring between me and the car door.

"What?"

"Do you have any idea how long it has been since someone opened a car door for me?" She smiled.

"Well I guess that you'll just have to ride with me more often, I'll always open the door for you." I smiled and her own smile brightened.

"Alright, I might just have to." I was going to hold her to that. She walked over to me and stepped to the car, sitting gracefully and I closed the door for her, walking over to the drivers side with a spring in my step. My mood was so high that I was practically floating. I opened the door and climbed into the car, starting the ignition and pulling away from the school before either of us spoke.

"I like your car." She nodded, looking at the CD/IPod player . I plugged in my IPod and pressed play, starting the Flyleaf CD that she had gotten me listening to.

"I love this CD!" I smiled, that was why I was listening to the music.

"I know, you talking about it made me feel like listening to it. I hope you're happy, I spent Spanish trying to translate 'There For You'." She laughed. "So where do I go?"

"Umm. Keep going on the highway, we have to go to the other side of town." I nodded, maybe she lived close to me, I was on the other side of town too. But then we passed my street, and than all of the other houses.

"Where are we going, what do you live in the forest or something?" I was joking but she said "Mm-hum." And I snapped my head around to look at her. She turned around from looking at the trees to look at me confused.

"What? Oh! Right, I don't live in the actual forest, but my house is in the forest, we didn't want to live to close to the main center of town, and Esme couldn't find any spare land big enough for her likings, or an old house that she wanted to do up. But then she found this one and insisted that we get it. The place is beautiful."

"Your mum redecorates houses?" That was pretty impressive.

"Yer, she's really good at it." We drove in silence the rest of the way, apart from Bella telling me to turn when we reached her hidden drive way. Their driveway went for miles. After a while, a huge white house, or mansion, came into my view. Bella was right, this place was absolutely beautiful. I pulled up in front of the 'house' and Bella sighed, picking at the seat belt. She looked so nervous.

"Do you want to come inside?" She asked slowly.

"Sure." I smiled brightly. This was one more step in unraveling the mystery that was Bella Cullen. She smiled back at me, unclipping her seat belt and picking up her bag. I turned off the car and opened my door. Once I had exited the car, I went around her side to open her door, but she had beat me. I pouted at her and she laughed, just saying. "Next time." I smiled, there would be a next time. She walked me up the white porch steps and opened the door.

"Guys, I am home. Jasper, Emmett behave, we have a guest." She called.

Jasper and Emmett were wrestling on the living room floor, but stopped straight after they heard Bella's call. They snapped their heads around to stare at me and I smiled timidly. Their eyebrows raised simultaneously, and then they smiled.

"Hey Edward." They said, followed by Emmett saying "I win!" and Jasper getting his wallet from his pocket and handing over what, well, more then I could count. Bella stepped further into the entrance hall and I followed her. She closed the door and asked absently. "What did you bet on this time?"

"That it would take you less than two weeks to bring him home." He laughed and I blushed. Bella looked like she would be, but she wasn't.

"Hey Edward, It's great to see you again!" Alice skipped from what I assumed to be the kitchen and hugged me again.

"Yer it's great to see you too Alice." I hugged her back, smiling, but still confused. Bella rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. But then she whipped her eyes to the stairs as did Alice. Alice whispered to me "Don't worry about her, she's like this a lot more than I would like to say."

"What – " But I didn't get to finish my sentence. Rosalie strutted onto the stair case and stared, no, glared at me, before turning to Bella and pointing to me. "What is _he_ doing here?" She demanded. Ouch.

"He is my guest, and in my house. We all live her too Rose." Bella's voice was stern but patient.

"And he is my friend too!" Little Alice chimed in, and I smiled brightly down at her. Great, I had won over two of the seven, but one hated me. Better than nothing. Rosalie huffed and walked back up the stairs. I heard a door slamming somewhere up the hall way and Emmett walked past me. I hadn't even heard him move.

"Sorry about that, she just doesn't understand - just don't worry." He smiled softly at me. I liked him, he was intimidating , but once you got over his massive size, he seemed like a generally nice person. "I'll be back soon." And with that he walked up the stairs and disappeared up the hallway. Another woman walked from the kitchen area. She had cameral coloured shoulder length hair and had a motherly smile on her face, which was, of course, beautiful. Straight features, perfectly curved and shaped eyebrows and golden eyes.

"Hello dear, I am Esme, Bella's mother." She stopped in front of me, and her hands, and arms actually, twitched towards me. It was like she wanted to hug me. If she was anything like Alice, she probably did.

"I'm Edward Masen, it's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Cullen. You have a beautiful home." She smiled even more brightly, she too had the perfectly white and straight teeth. What was up with these people?

"Thankyou, we all put a lot of effort into it. Would you like anything to eat or drink?" She asked sweetly, and she seemed generally concerned about my appetite. It was strange, but I liked it. "And please, call me Esme." This woman just got into my top five.

"Oh I am alright, but Thankyou for offering." She smiled still and nodded.

"Alright, well I'll be up in Carlisle's study if you need anything, why don't you give Edward a tour of the house Bella." She started to walk up the stairs but turned round when Bella called after her.

"Is Carlisle at work?"

Esme nodded. "He will be back from the hospital at eight." Than she continued up the stairs.

"Is your dad a doctor?" I turned to Bella. She nodded.

"Doctor, surgeon, he does pretty much everything."

"Cool." I hadn't realized that Alice had gone over to the couch. She was sitting talking to Jasper.

"Come, I'll give you a tour." I nodded and followed her. We walked through the house and showed me everything except for the bedrooms and Carlisle's study. She was right about Jasper and the Civil war. He had a study and half of the book there were on the war. They also had a library, and a music room. The piano in this room was smaller than the white grand piano in the living room, but it was still wonderful. The last room on the tour was Bella's room, it was on the third floor at the end of the hallway. She hesitated nervously before opening the door and stepping in ahead of me.

"Wow." The room was huge, the wall that her bed was on was a midnight blue, the other two were a creamy white. The last wall was made up completely of glass, the whole backside of the house must be. As I said, wow. Her bad was massive, King sized with a blue and white comforter. She had so many pillows, I wanted to run up and jump on them. On the opposite wall, she had shelve after shelve full of books on one side, and music on the other side. There was also an advanced looking stereo that I was just itching to try. The spare wall had two doors, one that slid. I assumed that they led to a bathroom and a closet. I looked at the CD's and then at her. Seeing what I wanted, she grabbed my wrist and we both gasped at the electricity. She pulled me towards the wall, and let go of me once we were there. She went and turned on the stereo to a classical music station. Yiruma's 'River Flows In You' was playing. She had quite the collection. There were even vinyl's here. There was even stuff here from the fifties. There was more modern stuff than older, and I saw heaps of my favorite bands and CD's. The girl had taste, I couldn't deny it.

"You have quite the collection."

"Thankyou, I like to think so." I finished my study of her music collection and moved onto books. She had heaps of classics, and a lot of romance. She also had Sci-Fi and mystery, and I even saw some Anne Rice. I smiled to myself.

_See, there's nothing wrong with Anne Rice._

Once I was done with that, I turned around to see her sitting on her bed, looking at me, she looked like she was studying me now. I walked towards her think about what question to ask first, I wanted to know everything. Start simple.

"So, what's your favorite colour?" I smiled and she smiled back laughing.

/*&*/

I was driving home, and it was 5:58. I was late home, and mum was probably worried, but she hadn't called me yet so I wasn't too concerned yet. The past two house and thirty eight minutes had possibly been the best two hours and thirty eight minutes of my life. I had learnt so much about her, but she was hesitant to talk about her family, either one, or her adoption. She seemed to be as curious about me as I was about her. Every question that I asked her, she would make me answer, or would ask one of her own. I found out that her favorite animal was a panther (she had laughed continuously when I had asked that, and I swore that I heard laughter from somewhere in the house. She had laughed when she had told me panther too.), she was born on September 13th in Chicago, hated people who used their words wrong, or when people used to much slang. After that I talked like a try hard gangster for the next then minutes by which time she was pulling her hair and threatened to throw me through the window. Bella loved the sun, but she had accepted the rain happily, but she wouldn't say why, just muttered something about family. She couldn't stand polka dots, and didn't like anything pink. Her IPod was one of her most prized items, and she didn't like her phone. She said 'no comment' when I asked her favorite food and when I thought about that, I hadn't seen her eat at lunch today either. She didn't like shopping and tried to leave that to her sister, but she usually got dragged to the shopping center. She didn't like rap, but I already knew that. She wasn't a very social person, but I could have guessed that. She had never had a boyfriend, and my face almost cracked with my smile when she told me that, I didn't even blush when I told her I had never had a girlfriend. She seemed to like that. I told her about my mother and what she was like. I told her about my dad dying and what kind of relationship we had. I almost told her about the death, about what had happened, but I couldn't, not yet, I didn't want to ruin the mood anymore, and I didn't know if I actually could tell her that. She offered her sympathy when I told her about my dad dying, but I told her that I didn't want her pity, she said she wasn't trying to, but that she understood. She was stock still when I told her about my relationship with him, or lack of, like she was made of a statue, she didn't even blink. She said that she got what I meant, and could relate, but didn't offer anymore details, and I didn't ask her. I didn't want to push her, she would tell me when she was ready to. Her favorite colour was blue. So when I had realized that the time was after five, I had told her that I was so sorry and that I had to go. She apologized for keeping me and I rolled my eyes at her. She walked me to my car and waved at me as I drove away. She was absolutely perfect.

When I got home, mum's civic was already in the driveway and I hurried to get inside, grabbing my bag and locking the car before stepping up to the porch, where she opened the door for me and smiled knowingly.

"So you were with Bella, that girl that you don't like?" She smiled knowingly. How did she do that? She always seemed to be intuitive, that was what made her so good at her job. She just knew things, and she was really good at getting people to do what she wanted. It was a good thing that she didn't abuse that particular gift.

"Yer actually I was, sorry that I am late, we just kinda lost track of the time." I started to fiddle with the strap of my bag that was over my shoulder and stuffed the other hand in my pocket.

"That's fine dear, so what did you do with her?"

"Her siblings left school without her so I offered to take her home. When I did, she asked me to come in. I met her mother and then she took me on a tour of the house. We spoke for a few hours and that's when we lost track of the time."

"So you found out a lot about her?"

"Yer, why do you ask?"

"Well you said yesterday that you would tell me about her when you knew something, and now you do."

I sighed. "Do you need me to do anything?" We were in the kitchen now and she had her laptop here, playing the Chicago soundtrack on ITunes. She loved that movie, and the soundtrack. I rolled my eyes.

"You can make the salad, now tell me about the girl, what did you learn?' I could tell that she was smirking. I grabbed all of the things that I would need for the salad from the fridge, a knife and the spare chopping bored.

"Her mother is really good at decorating houses, and her dad works at the hospital, he does pretty much everything apparently. She loves music, and the sun, and reading and her family. She hates shopping, people not speaking properly and rap music. She isn't a very social person, and gets embarrassed easily. She's born on September the 13th and doesn't have a favorite food. She doesn't know what she wants to do when she finishes High school. Her favorite gemstone is emerald-"

"I wonder why." I heard mum mutter and rolled my eyes.

"She's closer to her sister Alice, who likes me, than to her sister Rosalie, who doesn't like me. Jasper and Emmett like to bet a lot I think, they even bet about me and I hadn't even spoken to them yet."

"What did they bet about? And why do you think that Rosalie doesn't like you?"

I was cutting the tomatoes now, and the juice was getting on my hands. Tomatoes annoyed me. They tasted weird and they felt weird when you tried to cut them. "They bet on how long that it would take for Bella to being me home. Emmett won. And Rosalie because she continuously glares at me, Bella even told me that she didn't like change, and she didn't like that Bella had made friends with the new kid, but Bella didn't mean that offensively. She also said 'what is he doing here' when I showed up there."

"Well, I am sure that she will warm up to you." Mum put the chicken on the stove and started to cook them. I added the tomatoes to the salad and started to toss the salad.

We worked well as a team. We moved efficiently around the kitchen and soon dinner was ready. We ate in silence for a while before she asked what else had happened today. I told her about the boring classes and how Bella made them better. I told her about the volleyball competition and how we won again. I asked her the same question, and she told me that she was working on a new case involving a five year old girl. Her mother was dead and her dad was abusive and a drunk. My mother was a social worker, she worked for the office at Port Angeles and she took her job very seriously. After dinner, we cleaned up together then moved to the living room, where she turned on the TV but picked up a book to read. I got my homework and started the easy Trigonometry questions. I was done sooner than I would have liked. Needing something to do, I ran up the stairs and grabbed 'Interview With A Vampire' by Anne Rice, Just because of the Irony. I walked back to the living room, put my IPod on and started to read. I was only onto the second page of the actual story when I stopped, unable to read anymore. The passage that had caught me eye was the third paragraph ' The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue.'. As stupid as this sounds, this sounded surprisingly like Bella and her family. But that was just crazy, even for me. Vampires were mythical creatures. Right? I kept on reading and was reassured. Bella and her family didn't wear cloaks and they weren't scary. Not really. Annoyed, I threw the book away from me, ignoring my mother look of concern and concentrated on the music, trying to memorize all of the lyrics. At 11, I said goodnight to my mum,, kissed her forehead like I did every night and walked up the stairs, trying not to think about Bella or her family or vampires or Anne Rice.

/*&*/

I woke up to "In Fates Hands" again and was glad to be awoken, kind of. In my first dream, Bella and I were in the forest but we were talking this time, she was smiling and laughing and I was in return. She told me that she liked me, better than Mike Newton, and that she wanted to date me. After that ended we were at the Cullen house and Bella drank my blood, with Rosalie watching and saying "I told you so human boy – you don't mess with the vampires, they bite." I said, "Well, maybe I want her too." Than she flipped her hair and told me I was stupid, and Bella looked up from my neck, smiled and than kept on drinking. The dream was strange, and I was happy to wake up and start my morning routine, wearing light blue tight jeans and a long sleeved white shirt. Remembering my hoddie, and my phone and IPod, I walked to the kitchen, saw mum eating breakfast again and decided to eat with her. I was up early today, so I took the time to make toast and ate it with her. She wished me good luck at school, and with Bella, and hoped that I made progress with Rosalie as I walked to my car and put my IPod on the dock. The Flyleaf CD was still playing and I hummed along to "Again.". When I got to school, later than I had expected but still early, Bella was already there, leaning against the car. I pulled up in the spot next to her and she smiled at me through the window, turning off her IPod and waiting for me.

"Good morning." She was cheery, I wonder what happened last night after I left.

"Good morning to you too." I smiled back at her.

"Did you sleep well?" She didn't seem as concerned as she did yesterday. Her eyes were twinkling.

"Yer, it was good."

"Nice dreams?" Now she looked curious, hopeful.

"Very." I nodded, if only she knew. "What about you, nice sleep."

She looked away and nodded, starting towards the english block. "I had a nice night, very nice night." What didn't escape my notice was that she didn't say nice sleep, she said nice night.

"Where's the rest of your family? Did you leave with out them this morning?" I laughed. She turned her head around to look me in the eyes, her own twinkling still, but mischievously now. "What, did you?"

She laughed. "No, but I think that I should do that tomorrow. They all expect me to be the last one to the car, so they won't expect me to leave without them. But they would probably take another car."

"How many cars do you have?" If the family liked cars, then maybe I could find a way to talk to Jasper and Emmett about them. I knew about cars, but I knew more about the finer details and types of cars, not the mechanics.

"We all have our own, but we also have the school car and Jasper has a motor bike instead of a car, he just rides with one of us if he goes out. Plus, he barley goes anywhere by himself."

"How come?"

"Well Alice goes everywhere with him, or Emmett and Emmett and Jasper won't fit on a motorbike together, plus Alice loves to drive."

"Makes sense. So where are they?" She shrugged.

"We got here early and they all went off one their own, I waited for you." I smiled brightly as my world lit up. _She _waited for _me_.

"Great." I probably said that a little too happily. She looked at me, still smiling and giggling.

"I think that they are going to leave without me again." She said thoughtfully, chewing on her plump bottom lip. I turned my head away from her hoping to avoid those teenage thoughts. "I managed to piss Rose off even more and nobody else messes with Rose unless they have to." She smiled tightly. This was excellent.

"Well I could give you a lift home if they do, or we could go back to my place, mum might get upset if I'm home too late." Then I realized that I had practically invited myself to her house, and I went to correct my mistake, but she turned to me and she was still smiling.

"I would like that." And my day just got that much better.

I had my hoddie today, so as soon as I left Bella at her classroom door I put it on and plugged in my IPod, hiding the cords in the material of my clothing. The music made form and english pass quickly, and before I knew what was happening I was, happily, sitting next to Bella in history. We were watching a DVD today, still on the civil war. It was focused mainly on the tactics of the southern soldiers. They showed a picture of some of the men in Huston, 1864. The picture wasn't very clear, and it was only on the screen for a few moments, but the man in the middle, the major, looked familiar. He looked just like Bella's older brother Jasper. That was not possible. The vampire theory popped back into my head. Vampires are not real. Than the mans voice came back on the screen as he started to describe the positions and responsibilities of the men that had been there.

"Major Jasper Whitlock was the youngest major in Texas by the battle of Galveston. He was placed in charge of women and children from the city when the unions motor boats reached the harbor . He went with the first column of civilians to convey them to Huston. As soon as he reached Huston, he got a fresh horse and than made the trip back to Galveston. Unfortunately, he never made his was back. He went missing on the way back and was never seen again." I had stiffened in my seat. JasperWhitlock. And the major in the picture had looked just like Bella's Jasper. That….no, just….no. I looked over at Bella, she had stiffened and her fists were clenched on the table top. She looked upset, shocked and worried. She turned her head towards me, and smiled stiffly.

"Wow, freaky name coincidence." I said, I wasn't sure that the name was just a coincidence but I wanted to make her comfortable. She relaxed slightly, but I knew that she was still uncomfortable

"Yer." She was silent for the rest of class. I was worried that she was still upset, and that she would start to avoid me now. We walked out of class together just as quiet, and when she left my side she didn't look me in the face, just said a soft "I'll see you later." Than she lopped across the yard towards the foreign languages block, towards where her brother was standing with Alice. When she met up with him, she spoke with a concerned look on her face, and his almost immediately went the same. I spent some time studying Jasper, he looked just like the other Jasper in the picture. But how could he be? He would be over a hundred years old. Alice stayed indifferent the whole time, but I could see a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She turned her head to look at me and let the smile take over her face. She waved at me and I waved back, and started to quickly walk towards the math block and my trigonometry classroom before Bella could see that I was staring at her. I tried to block any thoughts of Bella and her possible-vampire-family as I blasted the music during trigonometry and Spanish, but by lunch I was going crazy in the need to not only see Bella, but talk to her too. I wanted to ask her about what happened during history but I could be patient enough for that. Just to talk about….anything would be fine, even if we just sat there in silence, That would be enough. I all but ran to the math block, hoping to catch up with Bella before we went to the cafeteria. She probably wouldn't want to sit with or near me. My luck was still there apparently, she was waiting, leaning against the block wall and staring at her hands.

"Hey Bella." I said, walking up to her hesitantly. Did she still want to speak to me? She looked up, hurt swimming in her eyes. I walked towards her faster, and the hurt slowly started to disappear. Odd.

"Hi." She smiled back. "How was class?"

"No idea?" She looked curious. "I had my IPod on the whole time." She smiled in recognition.

"While I agree that IPod's can help, you really should pay attention."

"But I've done all of this."

"Well you should at least try and take some notes, especially when we start to do new stuff."

"I will once we start that new stuff." I reassured her. She nodded and looked happier. We were walking to the cafeteria by now. I didn't want to sit with Mike and Eric and the others, I didn't know if I would be invited to sit with them anymore, not after yesterday. I decided that I would go to the library or my car for lunch, after I got some food. We were almost there when Alice skipped up to us, hugging each of us again before taking Bella's hand and leading is to the cafeteria. The smell of pizza was wafting through the room, which I could normally like, but this pizza was crappy cafeteria pizza.

"You should sit with us today Edward." Alice didn't even look at me as she spoke, but Bella rose her eyebrows and looked at her sister.

"What?" I asked, was she sure that that was a good idea? I would love sit with Bella, and I wanted to get to know her family better, they were so important to her, but Rosalie would not appreciate me sitting with her, that was for sure.

"Sit with us, come on, you know you want to." She laughed.

"I want to, but what about Rosalie."

"Forget about Rosalie."

"Alright than." I was getting what I wanted earlier than expected, who was I to complain?

We got our food and headed to their table. I could see the people from my old table looked at me with wide eyes, as was most of the cafeteria, the Cullen's really never sat with anyone else did they? Emmett and Jasper smiled at us as we sat, but Rosalie didn't move her head away from her nails, which she was staring intently at, she was trying to hard to look indifferent.

"Hey Eddie, what's up?"

"Don't call me Eddie." I really tried not to glare at Emmett, but I did and he just smiled.

"Wow that really annoys you." I nodded. Jasper laughed and said. "I know how you feel." This made the rest of the table crack up laughing. Bella covered her mouth with her hand, Alice wrapped her arms around her waist and Emmett leaned forward on the table. Rosalie just rolled her eyes. I smiled, I suddenly felt so happy. The rest of the cafeteria was staring at us and a lot of the room had stopped talking. What were they looking at, had they never heard them talk before? Actually that might make sense, they hadn't been noisy at lunch since I had been here, but that had only been for almost three days. Wow, only three days. "What?" I asked.

"I have a nickname too, they all call me Jazz and I used to get annoyed at them, but now I've just learned to live with them calling me Jazz."

"You don't mind Alice calling you Jazz when you two are-"

"Emmett!" Bella and Jasper said. That was weird. When they were what?...Oh. I blushed.

"Hey look, he's blushing." Emmett was pointing at me and staring like he had just seen the most amazing thing. Jasper slapped him on the back of the head and Emmett narrowed his eyes, dropped his arms and turned to face his brother. "You'll pay for that when we get home." Jasper laughed and kept on throwing his apple. He had been doing that for a while, but still hadn't eaten anything, none of them had. I picked up my pizza and took a bite, trying to ignore all of the grease and just focus on all of the cheese. It was working. They all looked at me, then turned quickly when they realized that I realized that they were staring. I kept on eating, hoping that they would start soon, but they all sat, playing with their food but not eating anything.

I thought better than to say anything. I already know that something was different about them, and what happened during history only proved that. Now they weren't eating. I really wanted to know what they where, but they had to be human. Maybe their coldness was really because of Alaska, maybe they worked out or something. They probably just didn't the like cafeteria food and ate before and after school, maybe Bella just wasn't hungry yesterday. The Cullen's probably just had a knack for adopting beautiful children. That had to be what was going on, right?

"So, what are we going to do tonight?" Emmett looked at Jasper, who was playing catch with an excited looking Alice. Why couldn't he just eat that apple?

"We continue our chess game?"

"You two play chess?" I asked, I wouldn't have thought Emmett the type.

"Oh we play extreme chess." Jasper said.

"Dude, I thought that we decided to call the game mega chess time ten!" They started telling each other about what name they had chosen, and I was looking amusedly between the two of them. Bella sighed next to me.

"They get ten chess boards, put them together and play chess, and you decided on extreme chess times ten." They stopped talking and looked at her. "Oh."

For the rest of lunch, they explained the rules to their game and then tried to convince me who was better at the game. I spent pretty much the whole time laughing. This family was great, if only I could get Rosalie to talk to me. Lunch went quicker than I would have liked, but at least I could be alone with Bella now.

We were walking to the science block when she apologized for her brothers behaviors. I shook her off and said that I thought that they were great. She laughed and said that she was glad that I got along so well with them. I told her that I was too. We passed notes during biology and she told me about some of the strange things that her brothers had done over the years, including Jasper loosing a bet and having to do karaoke wearing Alice's clothes. What you have to realize is that Alice is about 4'8 while Jasper is 6'2, or about that. The dress had been short to start with. We spoke about them some more during volleyball and we one the digging competition again. Mike tried to speak to me again, but didn't talk about Bella. We had left the gym quickly, Bella said that she didn't want to make me go to her house again and wanted to get to the car quickly. I stalled. When we got to the car park, the Mercedes was gone, and I smiled.

"Your place or mine?" I asked still smiling as I opened the passenger door for her. She smiled again as she got into the car.

"Lets try your place, if that is alright."

"Sure." I was just glad that the place was clean, my house had nothing on hers after all.

The drive was a lot shorter than the one to her house, and we were there within ten minutes. She complemented the house as we were walking up towards the porch, and I rolled my eyes, telling her that hers was way better. We kept our bags on our shoulder as we walked to the kitchen. I offered her anything to drink or eat, but she said that she was fine. I was getting concerned. She hadn't eaten anything at lunch, she should be starving. I gave her a tour and she complimented pretty much everything, and admired my CD collection when we got to my room. My collection wasn't as big as hers, but it was my pride. We dropped our bags and sat on the bed, talking about anything and everything until she suggested that we work on our homework. I nodded and turned on some music, grabbing our bags and opening up my book. She nodded at my selection and we worked quietly. When we were done I complained about Spanish and she laughed at me. We spoke about our old homes. I told her about Chicago because she was curious and hadn't been back since the adoption. She told me were she had lived and I rose my eyebrows. The street that she had lived on was filled with old houses, most of which were inhabited by families that had owned the house for generations. It had been close to where I lived, but I hadn't heard of her family. She told me to ask my mother if she had, she said that she was curious to find someone that new her parents, but I don't think that she was telling the truth. She told me about Alaska and the 'family' that they had up there, but she didn't tell me too much about them. She told me why everyone had been so shocked when I had sat with her and her family today at lunch, and when they had laughed so loudly. Apparently they had only ever sat with themselves, and were usually pretty quiet. At school at least. She told me that talking to her was probably going to get me a lot more attention, and a lot more stares. I told her that she was worth the stares, she smiled cutely, looked like she could be blushing again and said. "Thankyou."

My mother came home and at the same time her dad called her and said that he was coming to pick her up. I walked her to the kitchen where my mother was looking for food in the freezer.

"Mum, this is Bella Cullen. Bella, this is Elizabeth, my mother." I gestured to each of them as I said their names. They said hello, Bella shyly and mum brightly. They hugged each other, much to my surprise. They made simple small talk about mum's work and Bella's family, then her dad knocked on the door and I got all nervous. He had raised his daughter and I was old fashioned, I wanted her parents approval before I dated her, and I had decided that I wanted that.

I left Bella and mum in the kitchen and walked to the door way. Dr. Cullen had golden blonde hair, perfect features obviously and was deathly pale, but he, like the others, made the snow white of their skin look good. There was a kind smile on his face and it looked in place there. Even I couldn't help but trust him, and it usually took a while for me to trust anyone. At least I knew what he had in common with his daughter.

"Hello, I'm Carlisle, Bella's dad." He extended his hand for me to shake, and I did. It didn't escape my notice that he was wearing gloves.

"Hello Dr. Cullen, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, I'm Edward Masen." I tried to use my 'best manners' and I think it worked. He smiled even more brightly and chuckled good naturedly.

"It's good to meet you Edward, and please, call me Carlisle. "

"Carlisle." I nodded. "Would you like to come in?" He nodded and I stepped to the side, letting him in. I led him to the kitchen where my mother and Bella were still talking.

He introduced himself to mum and put his arm around Bella's shoulder. The adults made pleasantries, and Bella and I continued our conversation about Alaska from upstairs. After a few minutes, Bella and Carlisle went back to the car and I went back to the kitchen, trying to come to the terms of not being able to see Bella again until tomorrow. Mum and I ordered Thai food from the little place that was next to the DVD store. It was delicious and we lounged around the living room watching re-runs of 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'Law & Order'. It was great. I eventually broached the subject about Bella's family.

"Hey mum?' The criminal had just been caught, again, and she turned her attention away from the screen to look at me.

"Yer?"

"You know back at Chicago, that street near ours that had all of the old houses it?"

"Oh, of course I do, what about them?"

"Well, I was wondering if you knew the names of any of the families that lived there? I mean, a few years ago, when I was just a kid even?

"I knew some of them, and the history of more, did you know that some of those houses were built in the eighteen hundreds, they survived the Spanish Influenza!" She liked history too, she would probably get along with Jasper. I nodded politely.

"Did you know if the Swan family lived there?" She looked thoughtfully past my shoulder.

"I think so, but I think that that was a long time ago, as in the early 1900's. But I don't remember for sure. Why? Where did you hear that name?" The early 1900's? No……..

It took me a moment to compose myself. "Just wondering." I think that she could tell that I didn't want to talk about the Swan's anymore, so she turned back to the TV.

The early 1900's, she had to have the wrong family, that was the only logical solution.

_But what else about that family was logical?_

_Shut UP!_

_Oh bite me._

_Maybe Bella will._

You know that you are crazy when you start to fight with yourself.

Bella Point Of View –

I sat next to Carlisle in the car, and we were quiet.

"I like him, he seems nice and he is polite."

"Thankyou dad." I smirked.

"Alice told me about her vision." He said quietly.

"Which one?"

"The one where he finds out."

"Did she tell you when, because she hasn't told me, just that he finds out, and that it is a good thing."

"She didn't tell me when, just that it would happen." He smiled softly.

I nodded. "Alright."

Alice had approached me last night, after Edward had left, and dragged me back up to my room.

"He knows." She had said happily.

"What!"

"Well not yet, but he will. And what happens is good, he needs to know Bella! Trust me. The sooner that this happens the better. You should drop some hints about your age or something. Stuff will happen tomorrow."

"But why does he need to know?" Why was I so happy that he would know, I didn't want to lie to him anymore. Telling half truths were hard, I wanted to tell him everything.

"Because he does, don't fight this, please, because you know that you want him to."

"I know." She had smiled bright and sat on my bed. We talked for hours until Jasper called her and I got shot with a wave of lust. I went for a run, not wanting to hear what was about to happen there.

"I dropped hints, like she said too, but I think that he already knew that something was going on, he keeps on giving me funny looks, but not scared looks. Plus he sat with us at lunch today and saw that we didn't eat and I didn't eat any food at his place this afternoon. Plus Jasper was mentioned in history today."

"What did you two talk about that concerned Jasper?" He asked curiously.

"No I mean Major Jasper Whitlock was mentioned on the DVD that we watched in history, they told his story, they even mentioned that he disappeared and showed a picture of him and some of his team. The picture was on the screen for only a few moments, but he saw it. Jasper was a mix of shock and pride. He's all like 'score history remembers me' but 'shit now people might know about me'."

We laughed together, but I could tell that he was still a bit concerned. "Don't worry, everything will be fine." He nodded.

"Alright."

I spent the rest of the night in my room, reading and listening to music. But by night, I meant until twelve o'clock. He would probably be asleep by now. Yer, I had become a stalker. I actually watched the boy sleep, but it was worth it.

Edward said _my_ name in his sleep. Multiple times.

_I ran from the house. They were all having sex now and I had no mate. I wasn't paying attention to where I was running, but the fact that the tugging in my head and heart was getting better should have been notice enough. Before I knew what was happening, I was outside the house and staring at his bed room window. The bedroom light was off and the only thing that I could hear was two heart beats from the house. They were steady and they were obviously asleep. Sighing, I let myself indulge in my feelings and ran to the front of the house, up the tree and looked through his window. He was laying his side with his lips pulled up in a smile. He was wearing cotton pajama pants and no shirt. His chest was incredibly sculpted for a teenage human, which was understandable considering his apparent love of sport. The bed sheets were tangled around his knees, and he was resting his head on one of his arms. He was adorable, but still I couldn't help but feel attracted by him. I hadn't felt this way before. I know I had some kind of feelings for him. He was kind and sweet and different from all of the other teenage humans, he didn't listen to their music or dress like them or even think like them. I loved it._

_But I was also physically attracted to him, and that had only happened a few times before, but never anything like that. And I couldn't stand to be away from him, whenever I was there was a tugging in my head, thinking about what he was doing, where he was, if he was alright, if he was happy. There was a tugging in my chest that only went away if we were close or touching._

_He sighed and moved his head further into his arm. He sighed. I opened the window and slid to his room. I looked around, breathing in his scent and trying to get past the thirst and just think about the scent, the apples and lavender and sunshine. I sat on the chair in the corner of the room, the one next to the window and watched him sleep for about twenty minutes, before he sighed again and murmured _

"_Bella." He started smiling again and I swear that he almost laughed. But he said my name. Something in me was changing, I could feel it, and I love it._

"_Bella." He said again. And than the word shifted again and I gasped. Suddenly everything brightened and I realized what I had been on the urge of feeling, but hadn't left myself. I love the way he spoke and the way he thought. I loved the way that he was different and the way that he already seemed to know that something was different about me, but he didn't seem scared. I loved that he wanted to spend time with me and that he seemed to actually like me for me, and not for my looks. I loved him._

"_I loved him." I whispered. "I love him."_

_He sucked a deep breath, before saying. "Bella." _

"_Edward." I whispered. _

And yer, this made me a stalker, but I was going back tonight, but it was worth it, because I loved him and I wanted to tell him but I couldn't because we had just met and that would scare him probably more than the vampire thing and he was human and I was a vampire and….and now I was rambling and my thoughts were going crazy.

But I loved him. And I was going to tell him, soon.

Please Review, reviews are better than chocolate chip cookies


	3. Chapter 3 Discoveries And Port Angeles

**Previously – And I was going to tell him, soon.**

Chess, Discoveries And Port Angeles.

This was getting out of control, I was practically obsessed with her. I always wanted to be around her, I was always thinking about her, I was only really happy when she was with me and even my subconscious wanted het, I still dreamed about her. We were in the forest again but this time she was trying to tell me something, but she couldn't. She was trying to get me to guess, but I just couldn't say the word vampire, even if I wanted to. She got upset eventually and the left, but I shouted it after and she ran back and hugged me. The dream was very strange to say the least.

I raced through my morning routine, _again_, so that I could spend more time with Bella, which of course ended up with me punching the bathroom wall when I was putting on my pants. Nursing my throbbing hand I went back to my room, got my bag, phone and IPod. I decided to skip breakfast, I was too anxious to eat anything anyway. Mum was late and was only starting the shower when I was leaving the house. I called goodbye and ran to the car, turning on my music and going to school. She wasn't there when I got there, but I parked in the spot next to where she usually does, even if I seemed desperate. After about five minutes the car pulled up next to me. Rosalie stormed off as soon as she had parked the car, but the others stayed behind. I exited my car to a chorus of hello's.

"Hey." I said back, whilst returning Alice's hug. Bella came and stood next to me, leaning against my car and asking me how I slept.

"Great." I said smiling.

"Any nice dreams?" Alice asked smirking. Bella turned to glare at her, shaking her head.

"Actually, they were really good." It felt like the right thing to say, and it was truthful. And it was. Bella turned her head around to me, smiling brightly. I smiled back.

"So what about you all, good night?"

"I beat Emmett at chess!" Jasper said loudly. His brother turned to him , pointing at Alice.

"You used your Alice to cheat! Rosie can't do that!" What did he mean 'used Alice to cheat'? And he called Rosalie 'Rosie'? She seemed a little to fierce for a name like 'Rosie'. And what can Alice do that Rosalie can't? Smile every now and again? They were arguing again and but I couldn't really understand what they were saying, again.

"What can Alice do that helps you cheat?" I asked Jasper. He froze and turned from Emmett to look at me.

"She helps me to play, gives me advice and stuff. But Rose can't play chess at all – she sucks. With Alice's help I win, like last night." He smiled and Emmett just rolled his eyes and said "Rematch." I laughed at them and asked how long we had until the bell.

"You know Jasper, that is kind of cheating." He glared at me whilst Emmett gave me a high five.

"Only a few minutes, come on, lets start walking to class." I nodded and Alice followed me and Bella to the english block. She was talking about a new design book that Esme had ordered from a shop at Port Angeles. They wanted to redecorate the half of the spare room next to Alice and Jasper's room, she wanted a bigger closet. I was still a bit confused as to why they shared a room, and I decided to ask Bella about that during history. I didn't want to be rude, but I don't think that she would mind if I asked politely.

We each went our separate ways when we got to the english block. With my trusty IPod the first two periods went quickly I all but sprinted up the hall to history. I got there before Bella, as per usual because she was on the first floor and I was upstairs. I watched the door anxiously as student after student entered the room. Finally a flustered looking Bella entered the room and trotted over to me.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey, are you alright?" She looked much better now, and I felt it. I was always better when she was around and the tugging was gone. The feeling wasn't unpleasant but I preferred to just be with her.

"Oh, yer I'm fine, just looking forward to an actually interesting class." She smiled. Did she mean the actual class, or me? Did she really think that I was interesting? If she did, she had us the wrong way around.

_What, because you think that she's a vampire? _I mentally smirked at myself.

So I still thought that something strange with happening between her and her family, alright, I knew it.

But who cares? She could be a vampire or a pixie (which would make sense because of Alice, but wouldn't because of Emmett.) or even just a normal human, but I knew that she wasn't. And I was going to get her to tell me, or at least drop hints so that I could get it myself. The movie that we were watching was pretty much the same as the one yesterday, but this time it focused on the tactics of the north. Of course, that got me thinking about yesterday's DVD and that got me thinking about Jasper and being a vampire from Texas.

Bella had told me that the twins were born there, and I had picked up on a faint trace of an accent from Jasper, but not from Rosalie. Sure, she had only spoken to or around me a few times, but she had always spoken loudly and clearly, and she didn't sound southern, at all. I really needed to know what they were. And I wanted to talk to her, so I did what we always did. I opened my note book and started to write her a note, looking over towards her to see her staring at the paper with a smile on her lips. I had written –

So I asked my mum about the house and your family last night.

Had she heard of us?

She looked nervous, like she already knew what I was going to say.

She thought that she had heard the name, but thought that that was from the early 1900's or something.

She read the paper and swallowed, before sighing and picking up her pen to write her response. I waited nervously, trying to notice what was going on on the screen but all my mind could process were fuzzy pictures and the sound of guns screaming.

Huh, that's weird. I don't know much about the family history so I don't know if my family would have even owned the house from back then. Thankyou anyway though.

I nodded and kept on trying to think about what could be going on with her and her possible-vampire family.

/*&*/

"Come on you two would you walk faster!" Alice called from the cafeteria. Bella and I had started writing notes again after I had temporarily given up on finding an answer, I was giving myself a headache. She stayed away from the topic of Chicago and Texas which I was grateful for, I just wanted to be with her without thinking about the supernatural, I could always do that when I was alone. We had met up again at the math block, as was becoming part of our routine.

Most people looked at the little pixie as they passed by her, some even stopped and stared. I am guessing that most people had never even heard her speak before and now she was yelling across campus. Maybe it was her high pitched voice that caught their attention.

Bella laughed and quickened her pace slightly. For an averagely tall girl, she could walk really fast. I was taller than her and even I was having trouble keeping up, I guess that she just wanted to make Alice happy. When we reached her, she grabbed both of our hands and dragged us towards the food line. I got a salad and a cheese sandwich, as did Bella and Alice, weird. They were watching me and the food that I was picking curiously, like they had no idea what the stuff was.

"So why did you want us to go faster?" I asked Alice, who was poking at the tomatoes and frowning at them. She smiled up at me and laughed.

"Oh I just have a feeling that something good was going to happen." Bella and I looked at her curiously.

"Good as in beneficial or good as in funny?" Bella seemed to put a lot of stock towards Alice and her 'feeling', so I tried to believe her.

"Funny, but funny for us." She skipped towards our table. I looked at Bella curiously, and she looked back at me and shrugged. "She's usually right." I nodded again and we made our way to the table. I sat between Emmett and Bella, and Emmett gave me a high five when I sat. Jasper muttered a hello from where his face was buried in Alice's neck and Rosalie was….well….Rosalie. But a least she moved her head today, she turned her head to glare at me, rolled her eyes, flicked her hair and then went back to stabbing her tomato with the plastic fork. What was with everyone and tomatoes today, but they were gross! I started to pick mine from my salad.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked.

"Yer, what did that tomato ever do to you?" Emmett joked.

"Tomatoes are gross they taste funny and their really hard to cook and cut.' I complained.

"Really?" Emmett asked.

"Yer, haven't you ever cooked a tomato before?" I asked confused. What, did he eat steroids instead of vegetables? Would his parents let him, because that could explain the no eating thing. Plus maybe Alice sneaked some and that's why she is so strong.

He smirked. "Not that I remember." Alice snorted.

I shrugged. "Whatever." Alice started to bounce again.

"What-" I started to ask, but didn't get the chance to finish my question.

"WHAT!" Another voice said just after I had. The Cullen-Hales all flinched. That nasally screeching could only belong to one person. "What!" Lauren had shot up, sending her chair flying backwards and gaining the attention of anyone who wasn't already looking. Tyler was looking at her nervously and then around the crowed room, and then back at her and shaking his head. Alice started clapping quietly.

"Lauran I just – " I could hear him mutter.

"Are you seriously sure that you want to do that!"

He nodded.

"Why?" She demanded. She stomped her foot, looking ridiculously like a stereotypically American teenager – she reminded me of that cheerleading movie that my cousin forced me too watch.

"Because, I just don't love you anymore." He muttered. Oh this was just too good. All the people at my table, including me, chuckled

"I said WHY!" Bella put her hand over her mouth, Alice pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, smiling.

"Do we have to do this here, your making a scene." He muttered.

"Yes we do!"

"That's why!" He shouted, shooting up too and knocking over his chair. "Your attention seeking and annoying and you sound funny and you look kinda like a fish!" He yelled, and he was right, she did look like a fish. "Hey I hadn't noticed that before." I whispered to Bella, tilting my head to the side. She giggled and nodded.

Lauren was staring at him with her mouth open and a few people were starting to laugh louder, she was starting to be able to hear them. She looked around herself to see the giggling but still shocked faces. Then she finished the fight. She slapped him across the face and the sound echoed. That was the mini cherry onto top of the regular cherry that was on top of the ice cream Sunday that was this lunch time. She stormed from the cafeteria

People were still laughing, and those who held their chuckles in now let them free. Other's were still in shock but Jasper and Emmett were more or less laying on the table heaving with fits of laughter, soon the others on my the table, including me, were mimicking their position, The shot of humor came from no where, what had been funny was now unbearably so. The tables around us soon started laughing heavier and even Jessica, Lauren's 'best friend' who had been trying to glare at everyone started to chuckle. That was weird.

"Look's like a fish – priceless!" Emmett roared.

"Oh she deserved that!" I had never seen Rosalie smile let alone laugh, or speak joyously. Alright, so saying that someone deserved to be hurt wasn't exactly happy, but she sounded happy. Shocking.

The next ten minutes were spent talking and laughing about what had just transpired, but then we got over her expression.

"So, got any plans for tonight Edward?" Emmett asked me. I looked up at him from my salad, as did Bella and Jasper. Jasper nodded and then looked back at Alice. Bella still looked confused as I answered him.

"Erm, I have to do something with my mum tonight, but she won't get home till late. Why?" I started to chew on my sandwich and almost chocked in delight with the next words that left his mouth. "You should come over then, Jazz and I started an epic battle of guitar hero and you can pay with us, or then you can learn extreme chess times ten."

"Yer that would be great!" I smiled enthusiastically.

"Cool." And not even Rosalie glaring could dampen my mood.

"My brothers really like you." Bella said thoughtfully as we were walking to Biology. I smiled and turned to look at her.

"I am glad, and I like them too, they're nice?" She looked at me incredulously. "Well I think that they are nice, they seem nice, when you get over the sheer size of Emmett." I laughed, and she joined me. Nodding appreciatively, she said.

"I know how you feel, even I was intimidated by him when he first joined the family."

"I don't mean to be rude or anything…." I said hesitantly, and she looked over at me curiously. "But why do the others all share their bedrooms?"

She smiled at me, obviously understanding, maybe even expecting the question.

"It's alright.. I get that the situation is strange, but they all do really love each other. Our parents don't mind, they would rather that things happen safely and in a good environment then the others having to hide their feelings or sneak round."

"Well that makes sense." I nodded, still not completely understanding : but I could see where they were coming from. Who was I to doubt them? We laughed and talk about what else we could do that night, assuming that we got bored of chess and guitar hero before 6:30, when I would have to leave. When we were in biology and passing notes we decided that she would drive with me to her house so that I wouldn't get lost, that driveway was really hard to find! Tyler and Lauren were sitting a few benches in front of us, as far away as possible from each other. When I pointed that to Bella, she giggled and said that Rosalie was right.

"So why does Rosalie dislike Lauren so much?" I asked as we were walking to gym.

"Oh. When we first moved here Lauran and her lot tried to get us to be friends with them, but we tried to reject them nicely, but Rose got annoyed when Lauren kept on lusting after Emmett. The three of us overheard Lauren and Jessica saying how much more attractive Lauren was than Rosalie, and Rose always prides herself on being beautiful. They had a bit of a war ever since, Rose put water on her face and made her make up ran when she had no more foundation. Lauren threw coke on Rose's head which pissed her off. A few other stupid things like that." I laughed.

Mike was talking to me again. "So you're sitting with Bella and her family at lunch, that was not expected, aren't you going to sit with us anymore?"

"No."

"How come?"

"Because I like Bella and her family, and most of them seem to like me."

"Most of them?"

"Rosalie doesn't seem to like me."

"Well she's a bitch, if you knew what she did to Lauren you wouldn't be sitting with her or her stupid family." I rounded on him.

"Hey! Don't call her a bitch! I have heard some of the things that happened between them and I think that they were funny, Lauren brought that on herself. And that family is not stupid! They're great! They are all really nice people, and they are all much more interesting than you and your friends."

"Whatever, you are only spending time with that Bella bitch and that coz she's hot. And eventually she will get bored of you and dump you, and then you will have to come crawling back to me and my friends." And then I punched him in the face. He stammered and started to fall, but caught himself on the lockers. Everyone went quiet and Mike looked up at me and glared, with tears glistening in his eyes and blood streaming from his nose. I walked up to him and spoke in a quiet voice, knowing that he would hear me.

"If you ever speak about Bella and her family like that again, I'll do more than punch you in the face, alright?" He nodded quickly and I walked from the locker room staring at my hands. I wasn't usually a violent person, but hearing Mike Newton call Bella, _my_ Bella a bitch was beyond what I could take. That protective instinct rose up again and I hurried to see Bella, but I didn't have to go too far. She was leaning against the wall to the boy's locker rooms with a concerned look on her face but she was standing so still that she looked like that statue again. She looked like she wasn't even breathing.

"Did you hear what happened?" I asked quietly, and then she hugged me. Tightly. I was so shocked that by the time I realized that I hadn't moved yet she was starting to pull away from me. Quickly I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her to me tightly and letting her bury her head in my neck. She rewrapped her arms around me neck and held on tightly, but not as tightly as she had before, sadly.

"I'll take that as a yes than?"

"Thankyou." She said quietly.

"What?"

"I heard from 'so you're sitting with Bella and her family' – "

"Wow, how fast do you get changed?"

"Quickly, but that's not the point. I heard you defend me and my family and Thankyou. There are not too many people that would do that. And I appreciate that." She pulled away and kissed my cheek, making my breath catch in my throat and my grip tighten. The electricity that had been running through my body more intently than ever because we were touching pretty much everywhere intensified even more, more than ever. She smiled shyly and pulled away, and I let her.

We were walking towards the coach to get our ball, I had just assumed that we would be partners now.

"I am usually not that much of a violent person, I have a short temper but that's not how I usually get rid of the anger. He just shouldn't be talking about you like that, or your family." We got the ball off the coach and found a space near the doors.

"Wait, you defended Rose."

"Yer, so what?" I asked confused.

"She's been horrible to you, and you defend her."

"Well, she's your sister, she probably isn't that bad." She smiled at me.

"I will tell her that for you. You even made fun of Lauren." I laughed.

"Where is Mr. Newton?" The coach asked. I think that his name is Mr. Dwyer and he is a retired minor league baseball player. I exchanged a glance with Bella.

"He got sick coach." Eric yelled. The coach let the issue drop and asked us to start the competition, and we won again. Bella got stiffer and tenser with every step towards the locker room, swallowing more then what I thought was necessary. Mike was still in the locker room when we went back. At least his nose wasn't bleeding, he couldn't complain too much. I changed quickly and left, ready to see Bella again. She was standing near the open doors, she usually sat near the stands that were next to the boys locker room.

"That anxious to go?" I asked jokingly.

"Just to leave the gym." She responded. She was still tense, but not as much.

We walked to the car park, and the Mercedes was still there, but Rose was sitting there waiting with Jasper sitting in the back seat with Alice and Emmett waiting next to my car.

"Hey." They said.

"Hi." I said, Bella waved.

"We ready to go?" Alice bounced. We both nodded and Alice grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her to their car.

"Umm, I'm going with Edward, so that he doesn't get lost."

"Change of plan's, you're coming with us and Emmett is going with Edward." Bella pouted but proceeded to the car and I went around to the drivers seat of my car, sad that I wasn't spending the time with Bella but happy to be able to get to know Emmett better.

"What you aren't going to open the door for me?" Emmett asked, opening his mouth and feigning shock, holding his hand to his heart.

"Nope."

"What do I have to do to get you to open the door for me?"

"Be a girl." I answered, not looking at him but smirking all the same.

He laughed and we entered the car, driving slowly through the car park trying to avoid crashes but picking up gaining pace when we were on the highway. We continued this way until we got to their house. Their car kept on going around the road that went past the house, but Emmett told me that that was the garage and that I could pull up at the front of the house. We had talked about guitar hero and he was happy that he had a willing challenger.

The others were already in the house when we entered, and Esme and Carlisle were sitting on the love seat, curled up and reading books and magazines. They were the picture perfect couple that I missed, that used to be my parents. They offered me their greetings and this time Esme actually did hug me. She was hard and cold, but I didn't mind, I was getting used to the feeling. Jasper set up the Play station Three and Guitar Hero and we all sat on the couches or the floor that surrounded the couch. Alice was surprisingly good and never missed a single one, sometimes it seemed like her fingers were there before the new colour even showed up on the screen. She won obviously and Emmett started sulking about how she was cheating. I didn't understand that but shrugged, just another strange thing about the family that I would one day know. I beat Bella, who actually sucked considering that she owned most of the songs on the game, and made Jasper throw the guitar to the ground and pout like a child when I beat him. I lost to Emmett and surprisingly Carlisle, who was really good and started shit talking once his wife left the room. That was funny. He didn't seem to be much older than his early to mid twenties, but he was a doctor so he had to be late twenties, early thirties. He had the attitude of someone much older than he was, and had an air of peace, tranquility and wisdom about him, except for when he was playing the game. He started to act like the twenty something that he looked like, and I couldn't help but laugh along with the others as he made fun of me, but more so Rosalie and Emmett. I was surprised that she had stayed to play with us, but maybe she was warming up to me. I assumed that Bella had told her about what had happened during gym .

After a while, Emmett was getting bored, he was sick of loosing I thought, so he started to set up the ten chess boards near the glass back wall. He was putting so much effort into making sure that all of the boards matched up, the sight of a huge Emmett leaning over tiny chess boards was humorous.

"Edward, come play!" He yelled. He looked like an over excited child. I walked over to him, smiling as I saw that Bella was leaving the kitchen with Esme and heading in my direction, or the direction of the chess board's, but that's where I was going. I sat opposite Emmett as he was putting all of the figures on the board. Bella sat next to me.

"Why do I have two Kings?" I asked him.

He glared at me playfully. "Because that is how you play the game, don't you dare take his side with this." He pointed towards Carlisle, who was now playing Jasper, but doing so much more politely. I shrugged at him.

"Edward, can I get you anything to eat or drink." Esme was standing behind me, wringing her hands and smiling brightly, she looked so excited. What was so important about getting me something, she lived with five teenagers, this should be like a chore to her. But still, she looked so happy and who was I to say no?

"Erm, could I just have a glass of juice? I can get it if you want."

"Oh don't worry, I'll get it for you." She smiled again at me brightly, turning and walked to the kitchen with a little extra bounce in her step. She really was as maternal as she looked wasn't she.

She came back with my glass of orange juice just as Emmett had finished setting up the pieces. Bella scrunched up her nose.

"Thankyou." I smiled up at her.

"You're welcome!" Than she smiled at me again and walked over to the loveseat, flipping through a design magazine

"Alright, do you need a recap of the rules?" He asked seriously, I don't think that he has ever worn an expression this serious round me. I shook my head, mentally going over the rules that he and explained to me.

"Alright, let's do this."

/*&*/

"Kid, you gotta give up." Jasper laughed at me, his accent was getting stronger with every word that he was speaking. He was definitely from Texas. They was no denying it. Rosalie had left almost as soon as guitar hero had gone back to the cupboard, so I couldn't hear her voice. This was the third game, and I hadn't won one. There was a close call on the second game, but Emmett had gotten my second King before I could get his.

"Alright, you win, besides I have to get home now." I sighed, standing up.

'Is it that late already?" Esme asked from the couch, where she was sitting with Carlisle's arms wrapped around her.

"Yer, I'll see you all tomorrow. Thankyou for having me over." I nodded at Esme and Carlisle and waved at the others, watching as Bella got up to started to walk towards me.

"I'll walk you to your car."

We walked in silence to the car, listening to Emmett and Alice talking and Esme chastising them for what they were talking about.

"Hey, you remember that design book that Alice was talking about this morning?" She asked me once we had reached my car.

"Yer."

"Well Esme got the call today and it's in, but tomorrow she's busy so she can't go and get the book, but Alice has a thing against that particular store and she probably won't get the book. So I might have to go. Do you want to come?" She asked me nervously.

I stared at her. Had she just asked me on a date? Did Bella Cullen just ask me on a date? But she just – what?

"Don't worry," She said fast. "I can go by myself, I am not even sure if I will go yet."

"No, I'd like to go with you, I haven't been to Port Angeles, only driving through, it would be fun." She looked up at me and smiled.

"Great! Umm, just give me your number and I'll call you later." I nodded and took the cell phone that she offered me, programming my number and giving her mine, silently telling her that I wanted her number as well.

"Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow, or later tonight." I smiled. She nodded at me and started to walk back up the stairs, pausing and turning on the first step to look at me. I walked to the divers side door and waved at her before starting the drive back home.

I got home at twenty to seven and started on my homework. At exactly seven o'clock my mother walked through the door and greeted me brightly. "Hey sweetie!"

"Hi mum!" She stood in the door way and looked at me curiously. I wasn't usually this bright when I greeted her.

"Good day?" She smiled curiously, but still somewhat knowingly.

"Extremely, how did you know?" I smiled at her, wrapping an arm around her waist and leading her to the kitchen.

"Well, you are very happy. Does this have anything to do with the ever sweet Bella?" She asked.

"Yer, most of all."

"Well, what else happened?" We were in the kitchen now and she put her bag in the breakfast bar. I went to the fridge and started to collect all of the things that we would need for taco's and she went to the cupboard and got a fry pan and oil. I started to chop the tomatoes while she put the mince on the stove and started mixing the sauce.

"Well, Lauren Mallory got broken up with by her boyfriend, she started to make this huge scene and then he fully stood up to her and said that she was annoying and stuff and than said that she looked like a fish."

"What!" Mum turned to look at me. I started chopping cucumber. Yer we have cucumber on our taco's. And what?

"Well she's not a very nice person, and she is really annoying and even though she had a boyfriend she flirts with other people!"

"Who?"

"Lauren."

"Who does she flirt with?" I was silent. "So she flirts with you and that's why you don't like her?"

"Kind of, but that's not all. And besides that's unfair to Tyler. Then Emmett invited me to their house, and I went. It was great. Bella invited me to Port Angeles tomorrow night but I didn't know if it is a date or not, or if I'll be home late. Plus she hugged me and kissed my cheek at gym." I blushed. What had happened to my filter? I never usually went into this much detail, but she always hammered me for more information so this was saving her breath and I kinda wanted to tell her this.

"Really! How come?"

"I don't think that you want to know why mum." I muttered. "Why?" I put the knife on the counter and started to put the cheese in a bowl then put that on the table top.

"Mike Newton, this annoying guy, has a thing for Bella. He keeps on asking her to date him and she always said no but when she started to talk to me, he thought that she would be more open to dating him. She said no and today he started to talk to me about her. He was making fun of her and her family and then he called her…. Names. So I punched him in the face and than gave him a bloody nose. She was waiting on the wall to the locker rooms and heard everything." How had she heard everything actually, we hadn't been that loud. "And she was trying to say Thankyou."

"You shouldn't result to violence Edward." That shocked me, that was the first time that she had said my name in about three months.

"Yer, but I just snapped, he shouldn't be talking like that about Bella."

We spoke about Bella and the case that mum was working on through dinner, and I had gone upstairs, and was about to get my things to take a shower when my cell phone rang. Running to my bedside table and snatching up my phone seeing Bella's beautiful name up on the screen.

"Hey Bella."

"Hey!"

"So we still going to Port Angeles tomorrow."

"Yer, I couldn't convince Alice to go and get the book, so we can still go."

"Great, umm how late home do you think that we will be?"

"Do you have a time that you have to be home by?"

"Nope." I'm sure that mum wouldn't mind, I knew that she liked Bella.

"Well, do you want to go to a movie after the book?" Would she mind if I started screaming YES! I think that that might scare her just a bit.

"Yer, that would be great!"

"Great, so do you want me to pick you up for school tomorrow, then we can just go straight there after school."

"Yer that would be great." Was that all that I could say now. Was I being rendered speechless? She actually wanted to spend more time with me of all people. She could spend that time with pretty much anyone and she chooses me.

"8:30 than?"

"Will we make it to school in time?"

"Yer, trust me."

"Alright."

"Well, I'll leave you to your night, good night Edward."

"Goodnight Bella." She hung up and I think that I skipped to the bathroom. I had a date with my Bella. Wait, my Bella, controlling much?

/*&*/

'_Late night breaks lock hear the tires squeal_

_Red light can't stop so I spin the wheel_

_My world goes black and I feel and angel lift me up_

_And I open bloodshot eyes Into fluorescent white_

_Flip the siren hit the lights_

_Close the doors and I am gone_

_Now I lay here owning my life to a stranger and I realize that_

_Empty words are not enough.'_

'Artist In The Ambulance' was blaring through my phone speakers. My alarm woke me up with a start, that volume was up loud. But that was a great song so who was I to complain. Plus at least I got to see Bella soon.

_Bella._

I scramble from my bed, not wanting to be late for her, and wanting to wear something casual enough for school but presentable enough for Port Angeles, but Bella probably wouldn't mind, she wasn't one that really cared how you looked. Now I sound like a girl.

I ran to the bathroom, almost knocking over mum who was just leaving the bedroom.

"Morning Mum."

"Good morning, what would you like for breakfast?"

"Nothing."

"So toast great." And than she walked away from me.

I rushed through my morning routine, ate quickly and had my shoes on, bag packed and was waiting by the front door by ten past eight.

"What are you doing just standing by the door, and why are you in such a hurry, your usually just getting breakfast by now, if." Mum asked as she made her way back upstairs to get ready. She had to leave at eight thirty, and I had no idea how she got ready so quickly. Didn't girl usually take ages to get dressed. I shrugged and went and sat at the piano. I was thinking about Bella as I put my hands on the keys and let the music flow from my finger tips. The sound was really good, not trying to be conceded, but this composition was beating most of the other things that I had written. I grabbed the sheet paper and started to write what I already had, just so that I wouldn't forget.

"That was lovely, but what are you still doing here?"

"What time is it?"

"8:28, you usually leave for school by now."

"Bella is picking me up today, so that we can go straight to Port Angeles." She nodded thoughtfully, but looked like she needed to say something.

"What's up?"

"Tomorrow my work friend is having a barbeque. Just some people from work, her family and some other friends from the reservation."

"Reservation?"

"There is a little Indian resevaTion jusT a few miles away from here. Sue Clearwater lives there with her family and she invited us to go. Would you like to come, I don't really know anyone else that will be there and There will be other boys your age."

"Of course, that should be fine." Maybe I could invite Bella.

"You could invite Bella to come if you want, I am sure that Sue wouldn't mind."

"I'll do that." Just then a car pulled up in the front yard. A really great car. A car that made me jump up from my piano and consider trading my Volvo for, but then I dismissed that thought.

Then I realized that that car must have been Bella's and my mouth opened in shock. Then she stepped from the car and my mouth opened even more. She was wearing black high top chucks, black skinny jeans and a white shirt, overtop of which she had a black and red checked jacket that came up to her elbows. It was slightly warmer today. We matched, kinda. I was wearing black skinny jeans and high top chucks and a white shirt, but with my reliable black hoddie.

"She has got a really nice car." Even mother was impressed, and all she knew about cars was what brand and whether or not they looked pretty.

I just nodded, going to open the door for her before she could knock.

"Hey!" She said.

"Good morning." I said. "I am ready too go"

"Good morning Bella." My mother said as she walked from the house behind me., locking the front door behind her. "That's a very nice car that you have there, what kind is it?"

"It's a Mercedes Guardian." She smiled tenderly at the car, and then turned to my mother. "She's my baby." My mother just laughed at her, waving to us and saying that she would see us tonight.

"So you're one of those 'I love my car more than anything' girls?" I asked jokingly.

"Not more than anything, but it is high up on the list." She laughed. 'If I can't have kids, than this is the next best thing." That shocked me. Could she really not have kids? Why? And why was she being so honest with me about this, I mean, having kids wasn't that important on my 'want to do in my life' list, but I know that a lot of women usually want to be mothers. She didn't seem to concerned or sad when she said 'can't have kids' though, so maybe she wouldn't mind me talking to her about that. What else do you say in response to that anyway? _Oh, sucks to be you, I but your sister rubs that in your face right? _Rosalie probably would.

"You can't have kids?" I asked quietly.

She was at her side of the car now, I hadn't even realized. She stopped as she was about to open the door and closed her eyes tightly. She looked back up at me after a moment.

"I can't believe that I just said that, I am so sorry, that – "

"Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything wrong."

"That didn't just make you uncomfortable?"

"No. I was more curious than anything – "

"And sympathetic, I could see that in your eyes Edward."

"Sorry." I muttered.

"Don't be, just get in the car or we might be late for school." We entered the car. "So what exactly were you curious about?" She asked, starting the engine and stepping on the gas petal, tearing form my driveway and towards the school. She drove fast.

"You don't have to talk about this."

"I want to."

I was quiet and still for a moment before quietly talking. "What happened?"

"I got sick, really sick and then when the doctor made me better, this was one of the side effects." She was quiet for a moment before continuing. "Carlisle always felt really bad about that" She all but whispered.

"What!" My voice was louder than I had expected and we both jumped. She sighed.

"I told you that Esme and Carlisle were living in Chicago, and that they found me. But they found me at the hospital, or Carlisle did at least. I was his patient and he knew that my parents had abandoned me, he got to know me and then introduced me to Esme, who straight away was more like a mother than Renee ever had been and I already loved her. They took me home after I was cured, but the way that I got fixed made me unable to have kids. He was always upset saying that this was his fault, but I was just happy to be alive."

"That sick?" She nodded. "Wait, your parents abandoned you?" How could anybody leave her? Didn't they realize how lucky they were? And she was only five! We were at the school parking lot, I don't know how long we had been here for.

"Yer."

"Why! Sorry that was rude, don't answer that."

"Because they weren't responsible people and they didn't want to get – long story."

"Alright." I got our bags and opened the door, telling her to stay there and closing the door to her laughter. I ran round the car and opened her door to her laughing and joyous face, so much different than the expression that she had been wearing only moments before.

"To form?" I said, offering her my arm. She laughed again and threaded her arm round my own as I walked to form, savoring my time with her before I had to leave her at her form class.

"I'll see you at history." She kissed my cheek and walked to the classroom as I stood at the doorway shocked. That was twice in two days. And she got closer to my lips this time. Did she want….but…._kiss._

Maybe tonight, but did she even see it as a date? I didn't want to scare her or make her angry or anything by thinking that this was a date, but what if it was? What was she expecting?

She didn't say just as friends but maybe she just thought that the situation was obvious.

Girls really were confusing, or maybe that was just Bella Cullen, possible vampire. But whatever, because she was my Bella Cullen, possible vampire.

/*&*/

I pretty much ran to history, the whole three classrooms and everything, even though I knew that she wouldn't be there yet, her class almost always got closed late and she wasn't as close to here as me. I had probably only been sitting for less than five minutes but it seemed life a life time before she entered the classroom, swinging around the door and tripping over her foot, catching herself on the other side of the door and than smiling sheepishly at me while she walked over to me.

"You alright?" I asked, smiling but still concerned. For someone so graceful she was a bit of a klutz.

"Oh yer I am fine, I have managed to injure myself a lot more than just running into a door." She smiled at me, sitting at her seat and dumping her things on the desk in front of her.

"So how else have you managed to hurt yourself over the years?"

Class started at that moment and she continued the conversation through her history note book pages.

Lots of stuff really, once when I was a kid I fell off the horse and almost got crushed.

"What!" I whisper yelled.

She shrugged whispering "That was a long time ago."

What about you, any big injuries?

She wrote.

Three years ago I was riding my bike along the wharf and fell in, don't ask how, but my arm got stuck in the wheel and than I almost drowned.

She had stiffened in her seat. She turned her head towards me and raised and eyebrow, mouthing 'almost drowned?' I nodded sheepishly.

"Seriously?" She whispered. I nodded again and she laughed lightly.

Well you attract trouble just about as much as I do.

I'm not usually that bad, just had an accident.

She laughed again.

"Miss Swan, is everything alright?" The history teaching was glaring at her, but his glare wasn't as serious as whenever he glared at everyone else, his eyes darted towards her chest and then back up to her face. I gritted my teeth and balled up my fists, putting them on the table. Bella noticed too, for she glared Mr. Ericson, who shrunk back from her, with what looked like fear on his face. She did look a little intimidating, which was weird, Bella was always so nice.

"Everything is fine Mr. Ericson." She even sounded intimidating. The boy in front of us shivered.

He nodded and turned back to the front of the room.

"Asshole." I muttered but she heard me, then she snickered and nodded.

Freaky old man, I always knew that he was mean and stern, but pedophilic, never would have thought that. I spent the rest of the lesson thinking of different insults for Mr. Ericson and thinking of what would happen tonight, and if this was actually a date.

I spent the next two lessons waiting for lunch and rolling my eyes at the people who came asking me about what had happened during gym that last day. Apparently Mike hadn't told anyone and had asked other people to follow his example, but a few people that were in our gym class had told their friends and now the story was all around the school, even if the reasons for the punch and the amount of punches were different during every different story. That was why school sucked, stories spread like wild fire but they were all different.

Bella was waiting at the math block with Jessica next to her talking away, but Bella was staring my way and smiled when she saw me. When I was next to her, Jessica glared at me but then smiled 'seductively'.

Wasn't she supposed to be dating Mike, the guy that I punched/ beat up/ broke the ribs of/ threatened to kill? Told you that the stories went crazy.

"Hey Edward. Is what happened yesterday true?"

I rolled my eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know?" I smiled sarcastically at her. I looped Bella's arm through my own and started to tow her giggling form with me to the cafeteria.

"Have you heard the rest of the stories yet?" She asked me.

"Some of them."

"Broken ribs?"

"Yer."

"The real story, more or less.."

"Yep."

"He tried to kiss you and that was how you retaliated?"

"What!"

"That one was funny, really ruined his reputation."

"Nice. Did you hear the one where I threatened to kill him?"

"Nope." She hesitated. "Did you hear the one about us?"

"You mean the more or less real story?"

"No, the other ones?" She spoke quietly but I still heard every word.

"What about us, I haven't heard anything."

"Just a few little ones, not that big a deal." I looked over at her face and she was biting her plump bottom lip. But she still looked concerned so I pulled her over to the arts block, which was empty now because it was right next to the cafeteria and all of those kids got to lunch early, the foreign language block was the furthest away from the cafeteria.

I unhooked my arm and put both of my hands on her shoulders, lifting her head up with one of my fingers so that I could see her eyes.

"What are the rumors, and why are you upset? Don't worry about the others, so what if they talk, they will get over this sooner or later."

"I am not upset, I just don't like people whispering about me and my friends. Besides, the rumors were to be expected and I am more concerned about what you will think opposed to what they all think." I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, what they are saying are just a few things about us dating, which isn't anything to serious, but then there are also the other ones. Some people are saying that what Mike said was different to what he actually said, that we were sleeping together because 'I'm hot' and 'you're the new guy' and what Mike said pissed you off. Also there is one that we're engaged and that's why Mike saying those things made you angry." She rolled her eyes.

"Seriously?" I laughed. "That's all? Who cares, I am not worried and you shouldn't be either. Besides, we could confuse them all and actually pretend to be engaged, that would be funny, I bet that we could do that." She laughed as I looked past her, thinking of all off the things that we could do to convince them, thinking of peoples reactions and trying not to be happy about the words, you (me), me(Bella) and engaged all in the same sentence, without the word 'not'.

I threaded my arms through hers again and we were still laughing and joking about trying to convince everyone else that we were engaged, I still think that this was a good idea.

The food wasn't to bad considering that this was a cafeteria, but a lot of the food was made fresh. I got a fruit salad and a cheese sandwhich, real cheese too not that fake crap. Bella was looking at me curiously and when I asked what she was looking at, she just shook her head but started staring at her own cheese sandwhich, .

"What are you staring at?" I asked once we got to the table.

"Just the cheese sandwhich, don't you think that the cheese smells funny?'

"Umm, no." Who thought that cheese smelt funny, and how did she even smell that dairy product?

"Oh, alright." She started poking the bread with her plastic fork, still looking at the cheese curiously with her nose slightly scrunched up. Emmett and Jasper started to make fun of me because of the rumors and than Bella as well, apparently they had heard the engagement rumors.

"Hey have either of you actually seen Mikes face yet?" Emmett asked while Jasper started to throw his apple.

Bella laughed. "Yer."

"Did you see the size of that bruise?" Jasper asked.

"I did and I must say that I am impressed. That bruise is the size of Texas." He clapped his giant hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, offended." Said Jasper.

"I haven't, he skipped Spanish and that's the only morning class that I have with him." I spoke up.

"That means that he is scared or ashamed that he got hurt, what do you think that it is? I suggest a bet?" Alice chirped.

"It's both sweet, trust me, I would know." He smiled widely and the others, except for Rosalie who wasn't here for some reason, laughed and I found myself chuckling along, not sure why.

"How would you know?" I asked him, and after looking at Alice who nodded he turned back to me and answered with a smile.

"I'm just good with emotions, I tell you more about that later." Good at emotions? What does good at emotions mean, and why is that so funny?

"So Mike is over there, you see that bruise, is his nose more crooked? Or is that just me?" He continued, tilting his head to the side and pointing to the table that I used to sit with. I followed his point, seeing Mike glaring at from the table where I used to sit. If I was unsure whether I would be able to sit with them again, I was sure of the answer now. They were all talking to each other, occasionally pointing over and looking at my new table, most of them glaring. Mikes glare was the hardest, I think at least. His nose and left eye was purple and kind of swollen so I couldn't be sure. But that wasn't what mattered. His bruise was huge and purple and I think that Jasper was right, just a little bit crooked. I wasn't a huge supporter of violence but he deserved what I did because he was horrible to Bella and her family. I spent the rest of lunch talking and laughing with the others, and I found that all of my fears and distastes about moving to Forks were completely gone, they had been completely eliminated by my gorgeous Bella and her awesome family.

During the next two classes Bella and I spoke about what movie we were going to see and, after Bella argued that just eating popcorn wasn't healthy, what restaurant we were going to go to. I told her about the little Italian restaurant 'La Bella Italia'. My mum had said that the food was great. She agreed enthusiastically, saying that she didn't mind and would go wherever I wanted. As soon as we had changed from gym and I was able to escape glares and questions from the other jerks Bella and I rushed to her car, wanting to get to the city as soon as possible

I opened her car door for her, enjoying her smile as I also closed the door and ran around to my side." So, get any questions about our engagement during gym?" I asked her, and it worked, she laughed.

"Oh yer, Lauren asked if you had given me a ring yet, some weird girl that I don't even remember the name of asked of there was an opening to be a bridesmaid. Like three other girls asked to see the ring, but Angela stood up for me and said that there was no wedding. She's a really nice girl, even if she doesn't spend much time around me, that is really understandable."

"Why is that understandable? I mean, what's wrong with you? You know, that's the second time that I have had to ask you that this week, the first week that I have known you, do you have self esteem issues or is that just my opinion?" I asked jokingly, but still honestly somewhat concerned. She shouldn't have any self-doubts, either about her looks or her personality, she was not only beautiful, but she was sweet, kind, funny, loving and all together exquisite in every way.

"There's not really anything wrong with me, so to speak, but I am different Edward." I was silent for a moment before saying quietly.

"I already knew that, I just don't know what yet, I have theories though, but…."

"But you don't know yet and you don't want to tell me yet." I nodded.

"I get that, I was like that. Apparently you will get it soon, that is what Alice said, and you shouldn't bet against Alice."

"Why not?"

"Sorry, can't tell you that yet."

"Soon?"

"Soon." She nodded.

Hey phone started to vibrate than, and she whipped the phone from her pocket. As soon as the item was up at her ear a frightened voice came through the speakers.

"Alice, Alice! Calm, where's Jasper?" The voice relaxed marginally. "What do you mean gone, just black?" Bella was panicking now, her breathing stopped and she was shooting glances at me from the corner of my eyes. "Alright…. Just let me speak to him about that….maybe the reservation is to blame. Alright Alice, I'll talk to him and you later, alright." She hung up.

"What was that about?"

"Erm…. What are you doing tomorrow?" My eyes widened, I her completely forgotten to ask her to the reservation tomorrow, but she had mentioned that place when she was speaking to Alice.

"Um, I was actually going to invite you to a barbeque that my mum's friend from work is having, the lady lives at the reservation."

"Who's barbeque?"

"Sue Clearwater."

"Oh, that explains everything than."

"What do you mean? And can you come?" I was nervous, what if she didn't want to, what if she thought that this was too much?

"I can't explain yet. And I would honestly love to come." She sounded genuine and my heart beat faster with hope. "But me being at the Quileute reservation is a big mistake, trust me."

"Why?"

"Not yet, sorry."

"Not even a hint?" She seemed to consider my statement for a moment before she sighed heavily and nodded.

"My family and the Quileute people have an agreement, we won't go on their land and they up hold their end, but I can't tell you that yet. Me being there would start war, well not war so much as an attack, there is only one of them now and seven of us, but we want to avoid making them angry, we just want peace. But will you promise me something, please?"

"Alright."

"When you see Sam Uley, don't talk to him unless he talks to you, and be nice, don't annoy him, don't insult him or his family or friends or….anyone there. You probably shouldn't mention me around him, or at all."

"Why."

"They do not like me, and you won't like an angry Sam."

"Alright."

"Promise?"

"Promise." We were quiet for a few moments while I was thinking everything over.

"Wait, how did Alice know that I was going to the reservation?"

"She didn't, I suggested that that was where you were going."

"But then what was she talking about? What did you mean when you said, 'what do you mean gone'? What's gone."

"You were gone, the reservation, or Sam Uley, does that to people. Or to Alice at least." I started at her unblinking, so confused and feeling like I was just getting more questions to ask and not being able to remember them all.

"So let me get this straight, you admit that there is something different about you and your family, that should make people try to stay away from you?" She nodded thoughtfully.

"But you seem to be an exception to that." She commented.

"Right. And Your family can't go to the reservation because they do not like you there. Sam Uley makes people disappear to Alice. And you won't tell me why?"

"Yer."

"Well that isn't confusing, not confusing at all." She laughed at me.

"All will become clear soon my dear."

"You sound like a cheap clairvoyant from a carnival." She laughed again.

"Well I learnt from the best, Alice has that sound perfected."

"What Alice is a showground clairvoyant?" I said jokingly, laughing again. But when I started, she stopped.

"Bella? Bella Alice can't actually….Oh can she?"

"She doesn't work at the show grounds but yer Edward, Alice can see the future. When people are around Sam they disappear, for some reason she can't see him or his kind. When people are around him, she can't see them either. She will be able to see you going and leaving there, as long as you don't get killed there." She shivered. "But anytime that you are with him, she won't be able to see you. If you don't spend time around him she might be able to see you, that is another reason why I don't like the idea of you being around him, he is too dangerous. Call me prejudice, I probably am, but still, they are even worse than me."

"There is nothing wrong with you Bella, why can't you see that?"

"Thankyou." She smiled over at me. "But I am dangerous, to you more than anyone Edward."

I don't know what she meant when she said that, but my mind was made up, and I wasn't changing now. "I do not care what you are, and I don't care how dangerous you are to me. Your still my Bella." And then I blushed because her head whirred around to meet me and I had just realized that I said my Bella. Not just Bella, but not one part of me wanted to take that back. "Plus, I am not afraid of you or your family, I like you guys, and I will not be changing my mind on this." I nodded.

"Selfish as this is." She whispered and I turned my head to look at her. She was looking straight ahead with fear and joy written on her features. "But I am glad that you don't want to go, not yet at least, and at least I have a few more days of not afraid Edward, I will miss you if you go. Besides, " She turned her head to look at me, smiling. "I like being your Bella."

"Good!" I smiled laughing. "Oh and Bella?"

"Yer." She said, looking at the hand that was resting between the two seats as I put mine on top. "I am not going anywhere." I smiled over at her. The rest of the drive was silent as we listened to the radio. She had turned the station to and Alternative one, and I was enjoying the music. No words needed to be said as she drove and I thought over what she had said with our hands resting together. I enjoyed the electricity and hoped that she felt it too, I wanted everyone to be able to feel this. She said that I was going to be afraid, that I would go. But I wouldn't go, I don't think that I can anymore, I was too involved with her, and I loved it. This was where I wanted to be, not necessarily sitting here, but with her. Why did she think that she could scare me off? And Sam Uley, she seemed really scared at the thought of me being near him, should I still go? Mum wanted me to go, she still wasn't overly comfortable being around other people at parties with dad not there, they had never let go of each other whenever they went somewhere and my mother was quite the socialite, and with dad being a 'big-shot' lawyer, they were often invited to fancy parties and dinners, and mum loved being introduced as his wife. Me being there with her was like a safety net, I could correct her when she went to gesture to dad and introduce him, I was there and we had the same name, but once she called me her husband. I had to go with her, I knew that. She needed to get to know more people here and this would help her. But still.

"I can not go tomorrow if you want."

She turned to look at me with raised eyebrows. "No, you have to go, your mum. But just….just text me every few hours, Alice probably won't be able to see you and that makes me anxious, we really do rely on her visions way to much, we were fine before we got her but now that we are used to her visions, we feel blind when they aren't there."

"I will, promise." We were at Port Angeles now, driving along the board walk and looking at the ocean and the shops that were on the sidewalk. She pulled to a stop in font of a little book store.

"Alright this is the book store that Esme needed."

An elderly woman greeted us as we entered, and I pulled Bella along after me after I greeted the woman back, saying that we should have a look around the store before we left. I got a few books, as did Bella, including another Anne Rice book and the original Dracula, which she didn't see, which was good. This vampire wouldn't be like her, if she was one, because she went to school during the day, whatever.

We put them in the car after we had gotten the book for Esme and than went to the movie theater, by foot. We decided to see the Sherlock Homes movie because I loved the stories and thought that Robert Downey Jr. was awesome. She told me that she wanted to watch that movie because she had a thing for Watson. I threw popcorn at her for that and she ran away, giggling towards the cinema. I told her that she had a crush on a fictional character but still trying not to look at her. She said "Naww, I know, but he is great, he is a doctor and everything."

"You know that Carlisle, the man you call dad is a doctor right? That's like having a crush on your dad."

"Plus Jude Law is hot." I squirmed in my seat, unable to say 'don't think they are hot, what about me?' I settled for throwing more popcorn at her.

"Just joking Edward, don't worry, but he is my favorite character." She paused for a moment. "And I do not have a thing for my dad!" I still didn't respond, but kept my mouth shut tight. "Edward." She poked my arm. "Edward?" She poked my chest. Edward!" She poked my cheek, but I wouldn't look at her, then she threw popcorn at me and I cracked up laughing, enjoying the sound of her bell like giggles accompany my laugh. The movie started and we made jokes at inappropriate things and laughed when everyone else gasped. I loved every moment of it. She didn't eat any popcorn.

"Good movie. " I said as we were walking from the cinema and towards the restaurant Her arm was through mine again and I was acting possessive, pulling her closer whenever another guy came any close to her than I thought socially acceptable.

When we got to 'La Bella Italia' the hostess was overly friendly and I felt Bella stiffen, before muttering "Sorry." And wrapping her stone hard and cold arms around my waist, leaning her head on my chest. My heart started beating faster than ever at having her so close and I wrapped my arms around her upper torso, enjoying the shock on the waitresses face more than I should and enjoying the way she eyes widened when I asked for a private booth. She walked towards the tables and I spared a look at my Bella, she was smiling at biting her lip, looking at the waitresses back, before she shifted her glance up to meet me gaze, letting her lip free of her teeth and smiling widely and brightly, the smile reaching her eyes, which were swimming with joy.

"Here you go, " The hostess was gesturing to a booth, not at the very end but not to close to the other tables. I let go of Bella and slid onto the booth, hoping that she would sit next to me not across because I had thoroughly enjoyed holding her and wanted to do it again , and rather soon too, but she sat on the other side, and I tried not to be too bothered. At least I could more easily see her face and her eyes now. Eyes which were now looking intently at me, and than at my own eyes. "Your server will be here soon." She put two menu's on the table and walked away.

"So, any idea what you want?" I asked her, just wanting to hear her voice again.

"Nope, you?"

"I feel like lasagna." That sounded good, and I grinned at the menu when I saw that they had the food.

"That really is your favorite food." She observed, smiling lightly at my while her eyes were glowing with affection.

"Yer." I nodded thoughtfully. "Are you going to tell me what yours is?" I asked.

She looked up at me, smiling still. "Not just yet, Edward, but I already kind of have." She looked back at the menu.

"You already kinda have?" When? We had only spoken about food a hand full of times, her saying 'no comment' when I asked my question and her asking me questions about the food that we got at the cafeteria.

"Not just yet Edward." She smiled. She lifted her head from the table and looked up at me, and I couldn't draw my eyes away from her. Then I head the voice of the waitress, offering her name and asking us what drinks that we wanted.

"Edward?" Bella looked at me.

"Oh right, umm, I'll just have a coke." I looked up at the waitress, she was average height with dyed black hair and a nose piercing and flat brown eyes. She was giving me a smile that was not really appropriate given that I was here with another girl.

"Two cokes." Bella was glaring at the girl, and the waitress shrank back and the smile was wiped off of her face by the look on Bella's face.

"Right." The girl nodded, and walked off to fill our orders.

"So, can you tell me what Sam is, or why he doesn't like you?"

She looked at me contemplatively before she said. "I can't tell you what he is, and I can't go into too many details, but his kind is my kinds enemy, the only reason he is even like he is is because of me and my kind, mostly because my family lives so close. We didn't move here to make that happen to him, and we stay even further away from the line that separates the two towns to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else, but for him the damage was done and we only knew that we were making that happen to him after we had already moved here."

"If I am going to know soon, why can't you just tell me now?"

She shook her head. "I was told not to, to only drop hints. I might have even said too much, but probably not. I was told to talk to you about this and if Alice saw that this was changing anything she would call and tell me to shut up."

"And what exactly is going to happen?"

"I have absolutely no idea, but she says that you make things better, that you fix things. I have no idea what there is to fix or make better, but who am I to argue?"

"I make things better? I fix things?" I asked as the waitress brought back our drinks.

"Do you know what you would like yet?" She asked, still looking at me but not smiling as widely.

"Bella?" I asked.

"Sure, can I have the mushroom ravioli please?" The waitress nodded and wrote the order.

"And you sir?"

"I will have the lasagna." I nodded at her. She wrote the order and nodded, making her way back to the kitchen.

I looked back at Bella, wanting to know what I was doing for her or her family, how was I supposed to help when I didn't know what she was or what needed fixing. How was someone like me meant to help people like her and her family? What would they even need someone like me for?

"That's what she said, but that's not the only reason that we, or me, are talking to you for. We like you, you're interesting and different, and you're not scared of us, we can tell. Jasper and Emmett really do like hanging out with you and Alice really does think that she is your friend, and me, well….I would have tried to be your friend even if Alice hadn't told me that I should try to – or more so she told me not to k- do not worry about that." She muttered.

She thought that I was interesting. She actually wanted to be my friend, not just because I would help her and her family, but because she actually liked me, she wanted to be around me, and so did her family.

"Wait, you can tell that I am not scared, does that have anything to do with Jasper?" That would explain why they always laughed whenever he said something about how people felt.

"That has everything to do with Jasper, but there are also other ways that we can know. I can tell you that later." I nodded in acceptance, I was just glad that she was being this open and honest with me, this night was better than I had expected.

We spent the rest of the night talking about everything that we could think of, but trying not to talk about the supernatural. She didn't want to give to much away, and she didn't. She hadn't told me what she was, and she hadn't given any huge hints – like I sleep in a coffin or I have fangs, which she didn't unless they just grew from her mouth whenever she was about to drink blood, which she hadn't told me that she had and she hadn't tried to eat me yet.

We were walking from the restaurant and back when I mentioned this again.

"So no more hints? Anything at all, desperate man over here." She laughed at me. "Honestly, anything that you say can only help right now, right?

"There isn't too much more that I can tell you without giving what I am away."

"Fine than" I pouted and she laughed at me.

We walked to the car and drove back to the town, not as fast as we had been on the way to Port Angeles, still laughing and talking about books and music. We were crossing the town limits, after she had made me listen to a new song that she had downloaded last night, when I decided that I only had a few moments before I would have to leave her again for the night, until Monday. That was a whole weekend without my Bella, and I didn't feel strange about calling her my Bella now, she said that she liked it. So, I decided to bring up The reservation just one last time.

"So are you sure that you don't mind me going to the reservation tomorrow?"

"Of course, just be safe, and text me, and don't talk to Sam, leave him alone." She nodded determinedly.

"Alright, I promise." We pulled up at my house, and I reached to the backseat to get my books. "Goodnight Bella, I'll talk to you later." I smiled at her, getting from the car but leaning and bending my knee's slightly so that I could still see her.

"Goodnight Edward."

I smiled again and started to move away and closed the door, before I remembered something. "Wait." She rolled the window. "Remember how I told you that my mum said that she had heard about the Swan family from Chicago, but that they were from the early 1900's, was that you?" She looked shocked for a moment but than smiled.

"The Spanish influenza was a real bitch too." Than she drove away, leaving me standing shocked in the driveway.

Please Review - reviews are better than Edwarsd music taste, maybe....


	4. Chapter 4 The story I know What I Want

**Previously - "The Spanish influenza was a real bitch too." Than she drove away, leaving me standing shocked in the driveway**.

Did she just….what did….but that just….

Wow

She pretty much just admitted me admitted to me that she was alive during the early 1900's. She wasn't even trying to hide that fact. But was she joking? But that doesn't make sense, she wouldn't be the type to try and mess with my head, and I think that she wanted me too know. I walked to the house, greeting my mum who was still in the living room and answering her questions about my night but not really realizing what I was saying. After saying goodnight to her and taking a shower, I went to bed, not sure what the time was or what I was doing.

So I knew that she was something different, probably not human. Yer, definitely not human. Her family was enemies with the Quileute tribe, mostly Sam Uley and they couldn't go on to their land. Their being near the reservation would make the Quileute people become something else. She was cold, and strong and didn't eat, at that I could help them, that I would fix things and make things better. I just need to know what to do, how can I help them? She was old, really old and so was Jasper. Jasper could do things with emotions and Alice could see the future.

But how old were they? I wanted to know now but there was no way that I could know. Bella needed her sleep. Her family was like her and they liked me. There was no way that she would tell me what she was even if I called her. But Jasper was on that video that they showed during history, they had his name and story so there had to be more information on him somewhere.

Jumping from my bed, I opened my laptop and started the computer up. Once it was up, I started the internet and typed in Major Jasper Whitlock. I smiled widely when link after link showed up on Google, each listing his name and different aspects from the civil war. I clicked on the link, overjoyed when there was a picture of just him, taken when he first entered the war. The picture was black and white, and sure, this was just a picture, but you could see what kind of a person he was through it. He had a lazy but calm smile on his face, and I relaxed slightly just looking at it. His eyes were bright and mischievous, holding secrets that I wanted to know.

I continued to read page after page of information, learning about the man that I sat across from at lunch, who was born in the mid 1800's. Strange when you think about that, and I really should be more scared by this knowledge. Knowing that they were all probably much older than they appeared should make me want to stay away from them, but I didn't, I just wanted to get to know them and their pasts better. I wasn't scared of Bella, I didn't like her any less, I just wanted to spend even more time with her now, now that there were less secrets and that we could speak more freely, and soon I would know what she was and than after that, I would ask her to tell me everything that there was to know about what and who she was.

But I might be able to find information on her now, and I wouldn't even need to bother her. I already knew what her last name was, that she was alive during the Spanish influenza and her old address. Typing 'Swan family + Chicago + Spanish Influenza' I waited for Goggle to load up. There were results, but not as much for Jasper. But it had what I needed. Clicking the first link, I was greeted with a picture of the street two blocks from my old street. Though this picture was taken during a time that I wasn't alive for, but that Bella was. The picture was meant to be black and white, but aging had lead it to become that strange but classic brown colour, not quite sepia but close. The house in the middle of the picture was number 28, I assumed that this was their house. There was information about her parents, apparently Charles had been the town's chief of police, but had had trouble controlling his wife, and eventually started taking long breaks at work to go vacationing with her. The wife was supposedly a very flighty woman, often leaving her child with her sisters and going on vacations : for this she was frowned on upon society. Scrolling through the page, I found that there was a picture of the family of three and my heart got caught in my throat. Bella was standing in front of her parents, wearing an old fashioned dress (Obviously, Edward, you remember what year that this was, right?) that covered her arms and really pronounced her….female regions. I gulped. She was beautiful even as a human, but there were some small changes with her appearance. Her cheeks were rounder when the picture was taken, her nose not as straight but not crooked at all, and her cheek bones were a little more pronounced now, but she was still beautiful. Apparently her parents had skipped town when the influenza had hit town. Bella had stayed, and had been taken to hospital by the woman that she worked for. She hadn't been seen after, so she had probably died. There had been to many bodies to sort through them all. How could any parents do that to their child? Leaving them behind while they skipped town to escape the sickness. Why wouldn't you take your child with you? Even if she didn't want to go!?

This was making my head hurt, so I turned of my computer, put my IPod on and went to bed, laying on my back and trying to concentrate on the music, wanting to get to sleep before morning.

/*&*/

I woke up at two am, upset that I had been torn from dream Bella. A thump had woken me up, and I opened my eyes to see a flash going from my window to my closet.

"What?" I muttered groggy, confused. What was that flash and what had woken me up? I sat up and looked over to the end of my bed. The closet wasn't open and I assumed that the flash had just been my imagination, the thump too probably. Sighing and probing my ear phone back to my ear, I laid back on to the mattress and fell asleep almost immediately, dreaming about my Bella and the stuff that we could do together.

/*&*/

"Time to get up." I heard my mum's voice, she had her hand on my forehead. "Are you alright?" She said as I opened my eyes.

"Yer why?"

"You were tossing and turning a lot." She said. I tried to untangle myself from my IPod headphones and sat up.

"Just a funny dream, nothing to worry about." I smiled up at her through heavy eyes, how I wanted to go back to my dream, this was the best one by far.

"Alright, just get up and get ready, we have a few hours until we have to be there, and it's nine now."

I sat on the edge of my bed, trying to think over what had happened last night after Bella had gotten me home. I knew that Jasper and Bella were old, really old. Then the first dream, we had been in the car again, she was telling me everything all over again, plus the information that I had learnt myself. Than that thud had woken me up. I looked over at the window but nothing was on the floor that shouldn't be. Than the second dream, the one that had me tossing and turning and my mother concerned when she should be jumping for joy, or calling me stupid and be even more concerned than she was now. Bella and I had been sitting with each other at the restaurant and than at the forest. We had been talking about everything that we could think of again, but she was in my arms this time, curled up with her arms around my neck and her head resting on my chest, my arm, my forehead. She had kissed me and told me that she loved me, and I kissed her back. I held her tighter and told her that I loved her more. And I knew, even in my joyous but unconscious state of mind that it was true. And now that I was awake and thinking about it, I knew it to be even more true. I loved her, more than I had thought possible, more than my parents had. I missed her when she was not around and that pulling in my head and chest whenever I wasn't with her was because I loved her. I wasn't afraid of her because I loved her and love can overcome everything. I had been in love with her after knowing her for only two days. I wanted her forever, and I was going to fight for it. I would do whatever it took.

Smiling to myself, bright enough to light the town, I walked with more spring in my step than before to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day, without Bella. I frowned to the mirror and ran my hands through my hair, but reminded myself that I had an excuse to text her. I tried to take my time getting ready, but I was just so used to getting ready fast so that I could spend more time with Bella that I was ready by 10 – even with all of that time that I had spent thinking about Bella. Mum was ready when I got to the kitchen and we talked about last night again, apparently I had been vague last night and she wanted more information. I told her about the book store and about the books that I had gotten. I told her about the movie and that we had gone to dinner at the Italian restaurant that she had spoken about, and that the food was really good. She smiled whenever I mentioned Bella's name and I asked her what she was smiling at.

"You have this dreamy look in your eyes every time that you speak about her, it started the first day that you met her and got more and more pronounced every day that you have known her. And it gets bigger every time that you say her name." I laughed and blushed,

"I like her." I wasn't usually so open about my feelings, even if this was my mum, but I just wanted her to know.

"I know." She smiled.

"I mean that I really like her mum."

"How much do you like her?" She said slowly.

"I love her." She looked at me with widened eyes and I continued eating my breakfast, not breaking my eye contact and smiling widely, trying not to show her the food that I was eating. "What."

"You love her." She didn't ask a question, she made a statement. Did she even need my reassurance.

"Very much." She had to believe me. I wasn't that much younger than she was when she met dad and started to love him. She stared at me for a few more moments, probably thinking over my behaviour the past week.

"I believe you." She nodded and her face turned from contemplative to brightly smiling. She dropped her spoon and got up, I followed her with my eyes. She walked to my side of the table, hugging me tightly for a moment before going back to her side, still smiling but with tears in her eyes. I was probably being inconsiderate, this was probably reminding her of dad. "You'll be a gentleman?" She asked seriously.

"Of course." I smiled at her.

"Is she coming today?" She asked, and she was tense again. Something was up.

"She couldn't, actually, about that. Did you ask Sue if she could come?"

"Yer."

"What did she say exactly?'

"She said that Bella shouldn't come. She said that Bella would know what to do."

"Thought so." She looked up at me.

"You know about that than, how her family isn't allowed to go to the reservation." I nodded.

"Do you know why?" I asked her, and she said that Sue wouldn't tell her. "Alright than." She nodded and we ate our breakfast in silence, than she went upstairs to get ready and I smiled brightly, unable to contain my smile as the feelings coursed through me, as I cleaned up the kitchen. At eleven am we went to the car and started the drive to the reservation.

"So do you know who will be there?" I asked her after we had been driving for a few moments.

"Sue and her kids, some of their friends and the people from the tribe."

"Like….?"

"Billy Black and his son, Sam Uley and his fiancé. Some of her other friends and their son's and daughters. Jacob, Quil and Embry are probably the closest to you age, they are all 15." So Sam Uley was going to be there, at least I had a reason to constantly text Bella. "Sue told me that we need to be aware when we meet Emily, she got mauled by a bear last year and she has scares on her face, Emily doesn't make that much of a big deal about the marks but apparently Sam gets really upset." I nodded. Strange, last year was when the Cullen's came back to town and so that was probably about the same time that Sam changed to whatever he was now. I wonder if the thing with the bear really happened, if Sam could kill me than maybe he did that to Emily too.

"Great." I smiled at her, not really happy but willing to try for her. I did not want her around Sam either, if he was dangerous to me, than he was dangerous to her too. She looked at me curiously but shrugged and than went back to looking ahead of her towards the road. We were crossing the town lines now and I assumed that Alice wouldn't be able to see me anymore. I wanted to text Bella now, but she would probably think that I was being all desperate and clingy, and admittedly I was. I wanted to be with her, if we weren't going to the reservation than I could probably spend time with her, and that was better than spending time with a bunch of 15 years olds, who would probably grow up and have the ability to kill me. If only mother knew.

We were driving past the beach now, if you could call this a beach. There were rocks everywhere, the whole beach was full of them. They all looked grey and monotonous

from here, but they were probably a magnitude of different colours when you saw them up close.

We followed the road through the town and pulled off on to a small dirt road, that led to an average size house. I could see an old shack at the back, probably used as a shed or a garage. We left the car, walked up the porch steps, mum with a bright yet timid smile on her face and me trying not to grimace. A middle aged woman with thick black hair that stopped just above the middle of her back answered the door.

"Elizabeth! How are you? Come in, come in!" She smiled, waving us into her house. She smiled at me, somewhat sternly and said in a less friendly voice. "And you must be Edward, I am Sue Clearwater, nice to meet you." She held her hand out for me to shake and I did, saying, "Hello Mrs. Clearwater." And smiling politely when she told me to 'just call her Sue.'. I could tell that she was trying hard to be polite to me, but her tone was stern and I was even more certain that she too, like Sam Uley, was very anti-Cullen, and she definitely had a prejudice against me for being friends with them. She lead us through the house, to the back yard where there were about thirty other people mulling about. We were probably the last ones here. She led us around the yard, introducing us to people with names that I would probably forget. We were headed towards a rather small group of people, one of the men was in a wheelchair.

"This is Billy black." She gestured to the wheelchair man who smiled politely at my mother and nodded sternly at me. "His son Jacob," He was tall for his age, he was only meant to be 15 but he was about my height. He smiled brightly at both of us, saying –

"Sup man." When he saw me.

"And this is Sam Uley and his fiancé Emily Young." Sam had a hard face, his features were relaxed into a mask of peace, but his eyes were tight when he looked at me and he only offered a stiff smile to my mother. Emily was much nicer, shaking hands with both of us and politely saying that it was nice to meet us, she seemed to mean it too. But her scars, we didn't stare or make any indication that we noticed the three massive lines running through her face, scaring her features, but we definitely did. The lines disfigured the left side of her face, running up her cheek and making her smile slightly lopsided and tilting her almond shaped eye upwards.

"Great to meet you." Mum said, and I smiled politely at the two of them and nodded my greeting. They made simple small talk and I fidgeted, wringing my hands and kicking the ground with the toe of my foot, desperate to get my mother and myself away from Sam, he was still looking at me with tight eyes and pursed lips. Jacob was looking at me from the corner of his eye, probably wondering why I was being so quiet. I pulled up my phone from my pocket and texted Bella, writing _Hey, Good morning, everything's fine. How are you? _And waiting anxiously for a reply. I didn't have to wait too long. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I hurried to get my phone, almost dropping the device in the process.

_Good Morning to you too! Did you have a good night? Glad that everything's alright._

_Yer, I did actually, one of the best in my life __. You?_

_My night was fantastic. _She was a really fast texter. _If I take a while to respond sorry, I blame Alice._

_Alright, I'll talk to you in a few hours._

"Hey Jacob!" A gangly boy with, of course, tanned skin and black hair, came running up to the group and smiled up at Jacob. Jacob smiled back timidly.

"Hey Seth." He said tightly. Then he boy turned to me, shooting his hand towards me and smiling widely.

"Hi! I am Seth Clearwater!" This kid was like a rabbit on crack, he was practically vibrating with energy as I shook his hand. "You two wanna come and play guitar hero? I already got Quil and Embry." What was it with this state and playing guitar hero? Jacob nodded enthusiastically, jogging towards the house. "Come on Edward." He smiled, walking towards the house without loosing that goofy grin. I smiled up at my mum, who nodded happily, and then followed them to the house.

The living room was set up with couches and two teenage boys were setting up the guitars. A girl, about 18, was laying on the couch reading a book and looking angry. "Leah, stop moping and come play with us!" She gave Seth the finger and one of the boys, the taller, less built one, laughed at him.

"Ahh, sibling love." He smiled sweetly and then went back to the guitar.

"Shut up Embry." The girl, Leah, snapped.

"Shut up Embry." The boy mimicked with a twisted mouth. The boy next to him,who must be Quil, laughed and high fived him.

"Guys, this is Edward Masen." Jacob smirked, sitting on the ground next to his friends while Seth sat on the couch and stretched him long legs to the other end, leaving me to sit on the spare arm chair, looking around at the boys that were looking at me with raised eyebrows. Seth chuckled.

"You mean that you are the guy that invited Bella Cullen?" He asked.

"Yer, what's wrong with Bella?" I asked frowning, I already knew that Sam and Sue didn't like her, but didn't everybody have something against the family?

"Well, I don't think that there is anything wrong with her, but…." Seth muttered.

"Seth." Quil muttered, looking torn. It seemed that his reaction was involuntary, like stopping whatever his younger friend was saying just had to be said, like he had to keep a secret.

"So you don't think that there is anything wrong with her? Does everybody else?" I asked, already knowing the answer. They all exchanged glances, even Leah who had put her book on her chest and was looking around the room.

"We don't really believe the legends, but they are a past of our tribe, a part of our history, so even if we think that the legends are dumb, we have just heard them so much that the natural aversion is there. We can't help the way we were raised, plus it is better this way." Quil shrugged.

"What?" I asked, and Jacob sighed.

"We can't tell you." Jacob said.

"I won't tell anyone that you did, I am just curious, Bella said that she wasn't allowed here and she said that the reason wasn't her story to tell." That wasn't a complete lie.

"But – " Jacob said, but Embry cut him off.

"Oh, who cares, we should just tell him. The stories are fake and nobody is going to find out that we told him. Seriously, what's going to happen, are we going to start a war?" He laughed and the other boys joined him. Leah chewed her bottom lip, than sighed and started to read again.

"Alright," Seth nodded. "so we tell him. But you can't tell anybody that we did, alright Edward?" He looked at me, still smiling. I nodded.

"Of course." I smiled back.

"And we can't tell anybody else. My dad and Leah and Seth's dad is on the tribe council, they are the elders and if they knew that we broke the treaty…."

"Can you imagine dad's face?" Leah chuckled. Seth nodded and shivered. I laughed at them.

"So are you sure that you want to know?" Embry asked.

"Yer, after this you might never be able to be around her again." Quil smiled.

"I am sure that I will be fine" I nodded.

"Alright." Seth chuckled. The boys on the floor shifted so that they made a circle. Seth jumped off of the couch and joined their circle, settling next to Jacob. I joined them and took my seat next to Seth and Embry. They all looked at each other and then at me, I think that they were trying to make me intimidated.

"The history of our tribe dates back hundreds of years, and there are many different legends." Jacob started

"But what do your legends have to do with the Cullen's?"

"Getting to that man." Seth laughed, ruining the mood. I smiled back.

"Alright, so the legend concerning the Cullen's still relates back to our people. Our people used to be spirit worriers."

"Spirit worriers?" I asked after Jacob paused for a moment.

"Yer, Spirit worriers." Embry continued. "The men of our tribe used to leave their bodies and their spirits would protect the land. They could get the animals to do their bidding . But one time, the leader Taha Aki left his body in a secret place and went to the spirit world. Another person from the tribe, who had been out casted, was named Utlapa. He followed Taha Aki up the mountain and once Taha Aki had left his body and was far enough away, he went to his spirit self even though he was not allowed to. He went to Taha Aki's body and than used the new body to cut the neck of his own body. Now Taha Aki had no body to use. Utlapa went back to the people and took power. Taha Aki was devastated about everything that was happening to the people, but there was nothing that he could do, for Utlapa, using Taha Aki's body had told the people that they were never to use their spirit selves again. So he was stuck in the spirit world. Eventually, he got an idea, he approached a wolf and invaded it's body. The wolf allowed them to share the body."

"As one, the wolf and Taha Aki went back to the town, but the people ran from fear, see the wolf was huge for it's kind. But Taha Aki didn't attack anybody. He slowly retreated from the people, trying to make the songs of the tribe with his barks and yelps. The people began to realize that this was no ordinary wolf. Of course, Utlapa was hiding. . One of the young men went into the spirit world and Taha Aki went to the spirit world, but the wolf waited for them. Yut, the young man got all of the information that he needed. But before he could return to his body, Utlapa had come from hiding and saw the body, and he went to kill him before he could tell the others what he had heard." Quil finished.

"Utlapa killed him. Taha Aki was angry. He went back to the wolf body and something amazing happened. His emotions were so strong, but they were human, the emotions were too vast for the wolf's body. The wolf shuddered and turned to a man." Seth continued.

"You mean, he changed form?"

Seth nodded. "The other people realized at once who he was, even though he didn't look like Taha Aki, he looked like his spirit, and they had flown with him, so they knew what his spirit looked like. He explained everything and the people turned on Utlapa. He tried to run, but Taha Aki had the strength and speed of his wolf body, and he easily killed him. Taha Aki went back to lead the tribe, but he didn't age. He had many son's and they all transformed to wolfs when they became men. Then one time, another being came to the village. She was beautiful, with long flowing hair and pale skin with red eyes. She started to attack the people, but all of the wolf men were up hunting in the mountains. She came closer to the people and was about to kill Taha Aki's' new wife, the one that he loved more than the others. He had outlived some, but this woman he loved more than the others. He had imprinted on her. One of his sons was younger, not yet a man but he wouldn't let his mother die. He transformed to a wolf and heard the minds of the other wolf men. They came running to help him and they all killed the new being and everyone was fine." He ended lamely.

"But, everyone thought that the young man had transformed just because he was angry. But a few years later, more of the new beings came to the village. The men changed to the wolf people. They discovered that the presence of these….things were what was causing the people to change. " Jacob said.

The people that caused the wolfs to change? That had to be what Bella was, she was pale and beautiful and said that she and her family caused the wolfs to change.

"So, the people who caused the men to change are what the Cullen's are?" I asked slowly.

"You catch on quick." I laughed at Leah.

"So than what are they, the people that cause your people to change?"

"They are the cold ones. The enemy of the wolf tribe. Or werewolf's as what your people would call them."

"So what are the cold ones? What are they?"

They all looked at each other smirking and than looked at me. "Vampires." Jacob smirked.

_Shit._

"Edward? Edward!" Jacob was waving his hand in front of my face and I snapped back to reality.

"What?"

"You think that these legends are true don't you?" Jacob laughed at me.

"Well I think that they might be real." Seth shrugged.

"How cool would it be if they were, oh I would totally want to be a werewolf." Quil laughed.

"That would be kind of cool." Embry tilted his head to the side thoughtfully.

"I think that the legends are sexist. Why are there no girl wolfs!"

"Because girls aren't worriers, darr." Quil rolled his eyes and Seth punched him. "Oww!"

"Well, that probably would have hurt more if Leah punched you."

"True that." Leah said.

"You guys are all stupid, why would you actually want to be a wolf?" Jacob said.

"Because."

"So do you actually think that Bella could be a vampire?" Jacob laughed at me, and I laughed back. I should be more scared, I should be telling them that she was really a vampire and that they were right, and that Sam was a wolf. But I wasn't, I was happy to finally have my suspicions conformed and I still wanted to be with her. So what if she was a vampire. But that meant that she would drink blood.

"So what is the deal with the Cullen's, why can't they come here?"

"Alright, well about fifty years ago, maybe a bit more, they apparently came here. There were only five of them then and our people found them hunting. Jacob's great granddad was the chief and he made a treaty with them. The Cullen's said that they were different from the others. They were drinking the blood of an animal, not a human and they convinced us that they were always like that. They had different coloured eyes I think I heard, don't remember. But we made a treaty with them, so if they never bite or drink from another human, than we don't attack and we don't tell their secret. Plus they can not come onto our land. " Embry finished.

"Oh." I said.

"But there are two more of them now, so if they are vampires than they broke the treaty, and besides, we have no wolves, do we?" Seth laughed.

"Right." I said. "But didn't you just break the treaty?"

"But…. Well we did but you told us too, and besides, know one will know." Seth was still smiling.

"I guess that the Cullen's can either come and kill is all now, or bite another human or drink another human now, right?"

I laughed, but made sure to remember that Jacob said that. It might come in useful one day. I was serious when I said forever. I wanted forever on earth with her, or as long as I could have at least. If Anne Rice was right, than a vampire had to bite the human for them to change….

"So, To guitar hero!" Embry shouted and pointed his hand and finger like a superhero. We laughed and played the game, but the whole time I was concentrating on Bella and her now definitely vampire family.

When the food was served, I made sure that we sat far away from Sam and Emily. She was fine, but he transformed to a giant wolf when he was angry. The meal passed in loud discussion while I sat in almost complete silence thinking about Bella and her definitely being a vampire. I knew that I loved her, and that I would do anything for her. I just hoped that she felt the same way, or even a little bit like I did. I hope that she wanted me, that she wanted me the way that I wanted her, and the same amount of time that I wanted her for. Would she even consider changing me? I could be a good vampire, I could eat animals instead of humans, that would work. I could live with that. But all that I would have to worry about would be my mum. She might not survive loosing me. That sounds conceded, but I knew that she loved me and she had already just lost dad. He had only been gone for two years, but I knew that she would never get over him.

But I needed to be with Bella, and I was selfish, I knew that. But I didn't even know what Bella wanted. I sighed.

My phone vibrated. _Hey, everything going alright?_

I didn't want to tell her what I knew over the phone, I had to do this in person. _Yer, but Sam keeps glaring at me, he knows that I know you._

_What! Edward you need to stay away from him , your mother too. Don't talk around him or about me, you know what? Insult me even, that would probably make him happy._

_I'm not going to insult you._ She was insane, but she was also a hundred 109 year old vampire.

_Just be safe._

She got paranoid easily too, but she was paranoid about me. I smiled. Plus, I would be concerned is she were near Sam or his kind. Could she feel the same way about me that I did as her? No, we were friends, that was how she saw me, right?

_I promise._

That party ventured through the night and after three more games of guitar hero and an arm wrestling match, that I beat Jacob at, me and mum went home. We left early, only ten, but mum was getting tired and Bella was getting anxious, even though we were constantly texting now. She hadn't asked me if I knew anything and I hadn't said anything.

Mum and I had toast for dinner and watched re-runs again. Thinking about the last time we had done this, I couldn't help but smile at how much my life had changed. Nothing else was different, yet nothing would ever be the same again. Back than, only a few days ago, I was unknowingly in love with Bella. I thought that she was different but know I knew that she was a vampire. I was willing to change my life and become a completely different being just for her, and I knew that I wouldn't regret changing if I was allowed to. I sighed happily as I went to bed that night, tired and happy to be spending the next eight to ten hours sleeping with Bella. Wait….

/*&*/

I woke to birds playing on the trees that rested on the borderline of the forest and my backyard. Sighing I went to the bathroom and change and shower. The house was unusually quiet, my mother usually got up before me. When I got to the kitchen, I realized why.

Edward – 

My mother had written on a piece of paper that she had left on the kitchen table.

I had to go to work, something happened with that case that I was telling you about the other night. I will be back later tonight. Don't get lost if you go to the forest, stay on the track. Have a great day, love mum.

Great, so now I am stuck here all day. I could go meet her for lunch, but she was probably busy. I could call Bella but she might be busy with her brothers or something. Sighing, I grabbed my phone and IPod and put on my converses, wanting to go for a walk. I locked up and tried to decide whether to go to town or the forest. But I knew that some kids from school worked at some of the local stores, so I would probably see them if I went that way. So I turned to the forest and started walking through the forest, staying on the track and listening to the music, thinking about Bella and how I was meant to tell her that I was in love with her. I had been walking for about an hour. I could hear that the rain was starting to fall. I decided to start back home, and turned quickly, but I didn't see the tree root that was on the trail I groaned when I tripped on the root, falling and crushing my hip on the bigger root that the little root was attached to. I sat up and went to untangle my foot, groaning again when I touched my ankle. I think that I had twisted my ankle. I pulled the limb free of the binds and started rotating. I groaned again.

"Edward?" I heard a soft voice whisper, the voice that sounded like Bell's and helped to light my world up. I whirled my head towards her. She was standing a few feet away, with her had on a huge spruce tree that was covered with moss and twigs.

"Bella!" I smiled over towards her "What are you doing here?" She shrugged as she walked over towards me. "Just wondering round the forest."

"Your house is nowhere near here."

She smiled back at me. "Yer….are you alright? Did you twist your ankle?" She came over and touched my twisted ankle, her ice cold touch didn't hurt and she was so soft when she touched me. The electricity sparked up and my breath caught in my throat.

"Oh yer, I fell on the tree root." I laughed. She still looked concerned though, so I told her that I was alright, but she looked up at me and bit her lip. She looked back at my ankle.

"The twist isn't anything to bad, your ankle will be fine but you should try not to put your weight on your foot."

"Are you sure that you don't have a crush on your dad?" I joked, but my voice was tight. She laughed lightly and looked up at me through her eyelashes and my breath caught in my throat again. She was so beautiful.

"Do you know?" She asked me quietly.

"I know."

"How?" She was looking away from me know, and I leaned to her and put my hand on her cheek, guiding her face towards me.

"I was talking to the Quileute boy, they knew that I invited you and they told me their tribal legends about the wolf men and about the cold ones. Then they told me that cold ones were vampires and that just conformed what I already thought." She looked up at me.

"You already thought that we were vampires?" I nodded. "How?" I laughed again.

"Anne Rice – 'Interview With A Vampire.'" She laughed.

"Seriously!" I laughed with her, nodding.

"Is that why you went all tense when I mentioned her name." She laughed and nodded, but went quiet after a few moments.

"Are you scared?" She asked, quiet again.

"No. can't you tell?"

She smiled back up at me. "You don't seem scared."

"I could never be scared of you." She was staring at me.

"Why not? You should be. I could kill you in the blink of an eyes, if."

"But you won't, and you don't want to."

She was quiet again and pain flooded her eyes. "But I did." My eyebrows raised.

"What?"

"That first day….." She looked past me. The rain was getting to us now and I shivered. She looked back at me. "You're getting cold, you might get sick. Come on. I'll take you back home." I nodded and went to get up. "Wait, I can carry you, you will hurt yourself more if you put weight on your foot."

"Carry me?" She smiled at me brightly.

"Vampire." Than she scooped me up in her arms and my eyes widened.

"How did you do that, and how are you carrying me?"

"Vampire strength and speed, now do you get motion sickness?" Her holding me like this was making me feel like less of a man.

"No."

"Well than this is fun, but if you start to feel sick tell me or close your eyes, you have only gone a few miles so we won't be long. I won't go as fast with you.."

"Alright." Than she started to run, run really fast. So fast that the trees blurred. Motion sickness was starting. Then we were on the edge of my house and the forest. The trip that had taken me an hour to walk had taken her two minutes to run. "Wow." I gasped as she set me on my feet.

"Did you like it?" Her hair was windblown and her eyes were alight with excitement. I laughed and nodded. "Great." She put her arm over my shoulder and told me to put my arm round her waist, and I did so happily. She walked towards the house, still supporting most of my weight "Do you have a key?" She asked. I got the key from the pot plant and opened the door, once we were inside she put the key back in the pot plant and let go of the door, picking me up again and racing to the living room, sitting me on the couch and putting my feet up on the table.

"I feel like a baby."

"Well," She smirked. "compared to me you are a baby." She disappeared again but came back a moment later with ice in a bag and a tea towel. She wrapped up the bag and than put it on my ankle. The relief was immediate, it was better than her hand.

"I know." I sighed as she sat next to me. "I know a lot about your past."

"How?" She looked up at me.

"Internet." I smiled and she raised an eyebrow. "Can you go and get my laptop?" I asked, and she was back a moment later with my laptop in her hands. I started it up while I spoke, opening up the internet homepage and going to my history and clicking on the page that had her information. "Last night I was still curious, so I looked up you and Jasper, but as Major Jasper Whitlock. The page that I found on you had a lot of information, sorry if you didn't want me to know, I didn't really think of that that kind of stuff would be on the page." She looked at me curiously and gasped when I handed her the laptop, raising her hand and almost touching the screen. "What?"

"I had forgotten what we all looked like." She muttered.

"You forgot what your parents looked like? What you looked like?"

"Well I pretty much knew me, but after a while you forget about what features you had lost or gained during the change, I remember that I used to blush a lot and that I was really clumsy, I am even a clumsy vampire, by vampire standards anyway. But we loose our memories, most things become foggy and then the memories just go. If you keep on thinking about them than they can stay, but I didn't really try to remember Charlie and Renee." She read through the page and frowned or grimaced at different parts. She went quiet after she had finished, before looking up at me with shining eyes and I wondered why she wasn't crying.

"Do you want to know the full story?"

"Only if you want to tell me." She nodded again and put the laptop on the table top. "I was born on September 13th 1901 and Chicago was swarming with activity. My parents were young, too young to have children if you ask me. They were seventeen and had only been together for about four months. My mother was very….eccentric, by 1901 standards anyway. My dad started to work at the police station and be the time that he was 25 he had been promoted to the chief, don't ask me how. As the page stated, mum used to run of for weeks at a time, dad would stay home most of the time, he would take care of me most nights and my mothers sister would take care of me whenever he couldn't. Then when I was ten, he started to leave with her. When I was 16 the influenza hit. There was panic everywhere, we had no way to stop the sickness and everybody was scared. I had gotten a job at a seamstress's the previous summer and I was saving my money, I wanted to help us all if the sickness got to bad. I told my parents of my plan and my mother asked if she could have the money, I gave her half of the money that I had saved and They left two days later, that was August. I turned seventeen almost a month later and I got sick in October. I was feeling a little off but I thought that I just had a bug, I think that I knew, but…." She stopped talking and looked back at me. "Am I making you uncomfortable?" I shook my head. "So, I went to work one day, I was only a few blocks away from the hospital. The lady that I worked for had to bring me to the hospital after I collapsed. Carlisle worked there, he had just arrived a few months earlier and was working the night shifts. He found me and he was asking me how I was one night. I started crying and told him everything, something that I wouldn't usually do, I was always so quiet. He listened to me and told me that everything was going to be alright. I was at the hospital for eight days before I died, almost. Carlisle had let himself grow close to me, and before I went unconscious for the last time, he put his hands on my face and told me that he could let me live. He told me everything, what he was, how old he was, the cons and pros and how he lived. He asked me if I wanted him to change me and I agreed. He took me to the morgue and than carried me over the rooftops of the starry Chicago night to his apartment. He put me on his bed and bit my neck. He hadn't done that before, so he redid his wounds, and he regretted that later, there was a much less painful and quicker way to change me and he learnt that after me. If we lick the wound no scare is left, but he tore – wait don't worry."

"I want to know, tell me please." She looked at me and sighed again.

"He tore open my neck and than bit me again. The scar is still on my neck. Turn on that lamp there and pass it here." I only just realized that she had turned on the light, but I still passed it to her. She pulled off her hoddie to reveal a tight white singlet white. Tearing my eyes to her own, I watched as she pulled her hair away from her neck and held the lamp close to her skin. Something was glittering, like diamonds in the sun. I moved close to her and put my hand on her skin, feeling the texture of the scar.

"That's where he bit you?" I asked and she nodded. "Why does the scar sparkle, actually, your skin is sparkling too." She laughed.

"We don't turn to dust at the contact of sunlight but we sparkle, the scar sparkles more though and it even sparkles in lamp light, the rest of the skin is too though because the lamp is so close."

"Sparkle, really?" She laughed again and nodded. "Do you think that I will ever get to see that?" I hoped so.

"If you want too."

"Good."

"So, after three days of pain I was changed to a vampire, we had to move then because Chicago had too many people."

"So?"

"Vampires can smell blood, and newborn vampires are even worse, our thirst is crazy and we can't control ourselves."

"So, you get thirsty for blood."

"Yer."

"And you can smell my blood?"

"Yer."

"And that's why you wanted to kill me?" She stopped breathing.

"How did you know that?"

"You have almost said kill a few times….I think. You would say 'k- never mind.'" She looked at the table, but I wanted to see her eyes.

"Bella." She didn't move. "Bella!" She looked up at me. "I don't care."

"How can you not care!"

"Because I want to be near you, and this is part of who you are, you can't control this, and I can't blame you for this."

"Edward, you have to understand, I have great control, but you….you change everything. I more or less skipped over the new born phase, I was around humans after three months and I could be around them for a whole day after four. But you change everything. I almost killed you in our first class together. Alice told me that you would be there, but not how I would react. I started to plan ways to kill you, ways that I could get you from that classroom and get you to the forest or my car or something so that I could bite you." She was moving closer to me, pulling at her hair and looking into my eyes. "That text that Alice sent me? You remember that?" I nodded. She pulled her mobile from her pocket and, after fiddling with the phone, she handed it to me. The phone said.

_You won't kill him, you don't want to._

_He is special, he makes things better. Please trust me._

_Stop breathing._

_Keep thinking rationally – Carlisle, the family, you._

_Stay strong – Alice._

Wow. "But I don't care about that, you stayed strong and you became my friend. " And I fell in love with you.

"But your scent – "

I took her hands in mine and pulled them away from her hair. I held them in mine.

"Your scent is better than any that I have even smelt, you're my singer. Your scent sings to me in ways that I could have never have imagined. The others didn't believe me at first, Emmett killed his singer without a second thought, and then Jasper lost control too."

"Why?"

"He is an empath, he can feel and change the emotions of those around him, but he can feel our thirsts and when he felt Emmett's he lost control too and almost went after that lady too, but Alice and Esme stopped him, but they couldn't get to Emmett in time, plus she had probably seen to much."

"But what about me, I know too much."

"You're different."

"So what about the others, what can you do, what about the speed and strength, do you have a gift?"

"I am a mental shield, people with gifts that affect the mind can't work on me, but Alice and Jasper's gift still works because it affects more body not my mind. Not only are we really fast and strong, but we also have other heightened senses. I can smell your blood and your scent. I can smell toast and coffee that someone had here this morning, I can smell your mum and the pine and leather of the furniture. I can smell everything. I can see the dust particles in the air and the indents on the furniture. I can see the scar on the right side of your nose and the particles from your shirt. I can see your pulse moving the skin of your neck and the vain too. I can hear your every breath and the rain and the car that's turning to the road and your every heartbeat." Her eyes were shining as she pulled one of her hands from mine and put it on my chest, over my heart.

"Wow." I was getting lost in her eyes.

"So what did you want to know about the others?" Her voice was quiet.

"When did you meet them?"

"I can't tell you their whole story, they might get upset if they can't do that. But after Chicago, we moved to Ashland and we met Esme, well, I met her. Carlisle had met her ten years earlier in 1911, she was sixteen and had fallen from a tree and broken her leg, they were in Ohio. They fell in love then, but neither of them had the guts to tell the other and she got discharged and he moved. She was near death and he found her at the morgue, and he realized who she was, he ran her home and changed her, I got so scared. I had no idea what was going on." She laughed. "Rose was next, we were living in Rochester and Carlisle found her near death on the street. She found Emmett two years later and ran him over 100 miles back to Carlisle. She was scared that she couldn't change him but wanted to keep him, so she let Carlisle change him. Jasper and Alice found us in the 1950's. She had seen them with us and they came to find us, took them two years or so."

"What's your favorite food?" That came from nowhere, but whatever. She laughed at me and leaned into my side. I put my arms around her shoulder as she laughed and answered. "Panther."

"Ohhh!" I said, that made sense. We laughed together.

"Favorite decade?"

"The twenties or now."

"Do you change?"

"Everything has frozen, on the plus side we never need a haircut."

"How many times have you gone to high school?"

"Too many."

"Why do you keep going."

"To better blend in."

"How old is everyone else, physically?"

"Alice is about 18 and Rosalie is nineteen, the other two boys are 20. Esme is 26 and Carlisle is 23." We kept talking like this for hours, she took me to the kitchen and helped me make lunch when I got hungry and answered every question that I could think of. The things that she had done and seen were amazing. She had actually been Alive for the world wars and gave me the best history lesson that I had ever had. It was informative too. We were still sitting in the kitchen, me on one seat with my feet propped up on the seat on the other side and Bella sitting on the breakfast bar. It was four o'clock now and we were discussing the differences between when she was human and when I was.

"But society is less strict now, and that is a good thing, I like not having to wear dresses everyday and people telling me that I need to find a husband." I stiffened. "You alright?"

"Did you ever find a husband?" I asked tightly.

"No, I told you I had never had a boyfriend. I had offers to be courted but I never said yes, they just weren't for me."

"What about when you were a vampire?"

"No boyfriends."

"I didn't necessarily mean boyfriend." I muttered. This was so embarrassing, I hadn't meant to ask her but the words just….happened, Now I couldn't even look at her.

"Are you asking me if I have ever had sex?" She said quietly, I looked up and she was biting her lip. She looked like she would be blushing, I was.

"You don't have to answer that."

"I haven't." She said even more quietly.

"Really?" I started to smile at that, too happy about that fact.

_What do you think that she would have sex with you?_

"Yer. Have you?"

"No, I told you that I haven't ever had a girlfriend." She shrugged.

"Society has changed."

"Well I haven't ever been drunk of stoned either." I smiled. She laughed.

"Good, drugs and alcohol are bad." She smiled and nodded. "Why haven't you."

"Which one?"

"Sex."

"I believe in true love." I said trying not to blush, which was dumb of me because I believed in what I was saying. "I always wanted to wait until I was married."

"I don't think that there is anything wrong with that, that is why I have never had sex." We were quiet for a moment.

"Would you ever change me?" I asked quietly but she heard every word. Her head snapped towards me and she raised her eyebrow.

"What?"

"Would you even change me?" I said louder.

She hesitated, her facial expression torn. "I couldn't watch you die. If I knew that there was something that I could do – if that was the only way, than probably I would. If you had told me that you didn't want that I like to think that I would not bite you/

"Only if I was dying?"

"Dunno, why do you ask?"

"I want you to change me."

"You still – you don't know what you are asking." She still hadn't shook her head yet, that gave me hope.

"I know enough. I know what I want."

"Why do you want this?" I took a breath and sat up straighter.

"I want you."

_Please review, I would write a Witty remark but I need to get writing on chapter fourteen of ASC. Thankyou to all of those how are adding this story to thier alerts and favourites. Much appreciated._


	5. Chapter 5 Alice And The Future

**Previously – "I want you."**

She stared at me, unblinking and un-breathing.

"What?" She asked quietly, disbelieving.

"I want you." I said determinedly, strongly.

"You can't mean that." She was still talking quietly. If only she knew how much I meant that, she wouldn't be saying that then.

"But I do, more than you could know." Then she was in front of me, sitting on the seat next to me and cupping me cheek in her hand, It was still soft, yet somehow still cold and hard. I leaned into her touch, joyful at the electricity that was humming through our connected skin, and the contrast of her freezing cold skin and my warm flesh. My eyes closed on their own accord, I was trying to commit this feeling to memory, just incase I never got to experience this again, just incase I scared her off.

"I do know." I opened my eyes, shocked, to look at her warm eyes, they were overflowing with emotion. "Trust me, but I don't know if you want me the same way that I want you." I had to ask.

"Were not still talking about blood are we?" She closed her eyes and shook her head, smiling lightly.

"No Edward, we are not talking about blood."

"Than what do you mean?"

"I don't know if our feelings are the same."

I took a deep breath, unsure of how she would react to what I was about to say. Maybe she thought that I cared too much, maybe she thought that I didn't care enough. But she had to know, I wanted her to know. We had only known each other for a week, but I knew that she was who I wanted. "I love you." Her breath caught in her throat.

"And I don't care that you are a vampire – "

"Edward – "

"Let me finish, please." She just nodded. " You being a vampire doesn't matter to me, you could be vampire, human or a werewolf. I don't care if you are older than me, or that we are different, I love you. You can want to kill me all you want, but I trust you, you won't hurt me, you don't want to hurt me and I can tell. I love you, more than I thought was possible for one person to love another."

"You think that I am a person, not a monster?" She asked quietly, looking like she would be crying. I cupped her cheek with one hand, and grabbed her other hand with my free one.

"You could never be a monster." She closed her eyes and leaned into my hand, turning her head to press a kiss on hand, my heart started thumping.

"You really love me?" She muttered.

"Forever." I said back, just as quietly. She smiled against my palm and kissed me again, then turned her head and opened her eyes so that she was looking directly into my eyes.

"I love you to." My heart was definitely going to fast now, but I loved it. "I would do anything for you."

"I would die for you." I told her and she smiled back at me.

"You would never have to, I wouldn't put you in that position." I laughed.

"But I still would." She closed her eyes again and leaned into my hand. I was studying her features trying to memorize everything for the brief moments that I would let her go. Then her eyes popped open and they had a mischievous but curious glint in them.

"Could I try something?" She asked quietly.

"Of course." I smiled at her, but the expression fell from my face as she started to lean closer to me. She paused, but I leaned closer to her, encouraging her. She took the hint, happily. Her eye lids fluttered closed and mine followed shortly after. She paused, but she was so close that I could feel her cold body temperature radiate onto me and feel her sweet, flower scented breath fan across my face. I started to breath heavily and when she finally pressed her lips to mine I stopped breathing altogether. She was so soft but hard, so cold but her taste was so sweet. Her lips moved softly against mine and I tangled my free hand around her waist, bringing her closer to me so that she was straddling my waist. Her hands moved up to tangle in my hair and I moaned into her mouth. She pulled back then, I started to breath again heavily and she matched my pace, panting for air that she didn't need. I was doing an inner victory dance that I was the one to cause her to act like that. Her hands were still tangled in my hair and her face was inches from mine, still breathing her sweet scent onto me. She leaned in again, leaning her nose against mine and tilting her head, so that out lips were touching.

"I think that I know what you were meant to fix." She whispered against my lips.

"What?" I whispered, still breathlessly.

"Me, you we meant to fix me." She closed her eyes and smiled against my lips, kissing me lightly three times in a row and making me close my eyes, humming in pleasure.

"I love you." I smiled against her sweet lips.

"I love you to." She said back, and my smile widened. We sat like that until my mother drove up. We had been placing light kisses on each others lips whenever we wanted, and my lips tasted just like lip her. I was never drinking or eating or brushing my teeth again. She pulled back suddenly and opened her eyes. They were black now, not the gold that they were this morning..

"Your mothers home." I heard her then.

"What happened to your eyes? They were gold this morning." She got off my lap and laughed at my pout, but continued to hold my hand as she sat on the seat next to me.

"Human eaters have red eyes, the blood does that to them. When you're a newborn, even if your on the 'vegetarian diet' like me, they are still red, but go Gold after about a year, the newborn strength and thirst has usually worn off by then too. They are gold when we are well fed but black when we are hungry, but they go black for the human eaters too. I just spent a day with you and an hour kissing you." I smiled. "So, I am really really thirsty." Now she smiled brightly. "But I am still in control." Mum walked through the front door now. She leaned in towards me and whispered. "I'll come back tonight after she is asleep, if you want, alright?"

"Alright." I nodded eagerly. And then she was gone.

"Hey sweetie." Mum said as she walked through the archway that went to the kitchen. "Why is there ice on the floor?"

"What?" I looked to where she was and saw what she was talking about. The ice pack that Bella had kept on refilling for me was on the floor, I had taken my foot off of the chair so that Bella could sit on my lap. "Oh I sprained my ankle when I went for a walk to the forest and I put the ice on the ankle. I didn't even realize that I had moved my leg."

"Are you alright?" She asked as she put her bag on the table.

"Oh, yer I am great." I smiled brightly up at her.

"So you spoke to Bella."

"How do you do that?" I laughed at her and she shrugged, still smiling. " She came over and I told her that I loved her and she said that she loved me to." I couldn't stop smiling.

"Oh that's great!" Mum threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly for a moment, before excusing herself for a shower, and I started on ordering pizza, such a nutritional meal.

"So, did you kiss her?" Mum asked as we ate pizza, and I dropped my piece on the table.

"Excuse me?" I was gasping on air. Mum and I were close, but not this close.

"Did you kiss her?" She was smiling now and her gaze on my face made me blush. "Oh I knew you did!"

"Technically she kissed me." I corrected, trying not to blush anymore than I already was.

"Tongue?"

"Mum!"

"What?" I walked out of the room then, to the sound of her laughing, and I was muttering about respecting mine and Bella's privacy.

/*&*/

I was pacing my bedroom, dressed in my pajama pants, teeth (sadly, but I knew that she wouldn't like tasting cheese.) brushed and showered, waiting for mum to go to bed. At eleven thirty I heard her walking up the stairs, putting her head through my doorway and saying goodnight. She went to bed and I was jumping with anticipation. As soon as her bedroom door closed, stone cold arms were around my neck and their owners lips were on my own. She moaned against my lips when I tangled my hands in her hair and she leaned on her tippy toes to press her lips closer to mine. She pulled away and her eyes weren't as black as before.

"Did you go hunting?" I asked smiling widely against her skin as I nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent, loving it.

"Mmmmm." She hummed in pleasure. "I still don't understand how you can react to my erm, vampire activities so commonly." I looked up at her.

"Well how did you react when Carlisle told you. " She smiled sheepishly.

"I was happy to know what was going on, I told him that I knew that something was different about him." I laughed.

"Well that's how I can react the way that I do, you did to. So did you go hunting?"

"Yes." She sighed, tilting her head to the side and wrapping her arms around my waist, as I wrapped mine around her waist, leading her towards the bed. She sat on my lap, leaning her head on my shoulder as I placed a kiss on her forehead and hair.

"Catch anything good?"

"Just some deer and an elk. Alice made me go yesterday too, and I have hunted pretty much everyday that I have known you, so I feel bloated."

"How often do you usually have to hunt?"

"Well," She looked thoughtful. "We all hunt at least once a week to make sure that Jasper stays comfortable. But if there was no Jasper to look after, two or three weeks."

"My scent is that strong?" I asked shocked. She was making such a sacrifice for me and what was I giving up? She nodded. "Wow, how can you stand being so close, is this alright, what I did, what I am doing?" I was suddenly unsure, she shouldn't be making sacrifices for me. I wanted to help her not hurt her.

"I assure you that I am fine." She nuzzled her face to my neck, then moved and kissed the hollow between my collarbones, causing my pulse to quicken. "See, perfectly fine." I was quite content to just hold her for the next few hours, but after a half hour of cuddling and the constant quite 'I love you's' she said that 'the human needed to sleep.' She got up of my lap and smiled at me, pulling me up with her.

"I want you to stay." I tried not to blush, it was working.

"I would love to." My heart sped up and I looked up at her. She was smiling at me lovingly but when she met my gaze, she clicked her fingers and then pointed to my bed. I laughed and saluted her, walking to the bed and slipping in. "Save the salutes for Jazz." She giggled and laid next to me but on top of the quilt. I looked at her questioningly. "I would be to cold."

"Do you have any idea how warm this quilt is? Having you here would probably help, I won't over heat like I have the past nights that we have been here." She stiffened.

"We?"

"Yer, me and my mum, since we moved to Washington. " Why had she reacted like that?

"Oh."

"Who did you think that I meant?" She looked away from me.

"You'll make me leave, rightfully so." I laughed.

"Yer right. Does this have anything to do with the thump that woke me up and the flash." I laughed, but she bit her lip and looked at me timidly. "Oh really?" My laughter stopped short. She had been in my room? But I dreamed about her, and I sleep talked. Oh.. "You snuck in here at night?" She nodded, looking at the picture on the wall that was above my head. "Why?"

"I like to watch you sleep." She said quietly. "You look so peaceful, and you speak." I stiffened, but at least she liked what she was watching, that was good right?

"What did you hear?"

"You aren't scared that I snuck into your room, more than once?" She looked at me curiously.

"You don't need to sneak anymore." She smiled brightly. "But what did I say?" She kissed my lips.

"You said my name, a lot. I was sitting in the chair by the window Wednesday morning, at about 1am and you said my name, three times. The first time you smiled and I think that you almost laughed. The third time that you said my name I completely knew that I loved you." She kissed me again and I sucked in a breath at that knowledge. How had she been around me so calmly when she knew that she felt that way? I had been a jumpy mess even since I discovered what my feelings were. On the other hand, I had never been more thankful for my sleep talking. Score one for my subconscious. I had no idea how to respond to that, so I simply said "I love you." Again, but it worked. She smiled brightly and kissed my lips. She tasted fantastic.

"So will you get under the blankets, I'll lock the door so that my mum won't catch us." She bit her lip and smiled. Then it hit me. Most vampire myths weren't real, and I had just assumed that the whole ' sleeping in coffins during the day' thing was fake, that she slept at night, because she was always with me during the day. But if she was at my house at one am, when was she meant to sleep? "Bella? If you were here during the night, when did you sleep?" She laughed lightly.

"When I told you that my kind was frozen, I meant everything. We can't digest anything, not food or drink. We don't go to the bathroom and we can't sleep. We can relax to the degree where we are almost asleep, but we never loose consciousness."

"You don't sleep?" I gaped at her. She seriously didn't sleep?

"Nope."

"At all?"

"I haven't slept since 1918."

I was quiet for a few moments, trying to digest that. She hadn't slept in over 90 years. "Do you miss sleeping?"

"Sometimes. I miss the….freedom....of sleep." She looked thoughtful, laying on her side and propping herself up on her elbow.

"Freedom?" How was sleep giving you freedom, if you had bad dreams, you couldn't stop, you couldn't leave the fear. You had no choice what your subconscious decided to bring up.

"To just be able to escape from reality for a few hours. There have been times when I have really missed being able to do that. Being like this, the days and nights blur together, you get used to it and find ways to help you keep track of the time, but at first everything is so confusing that that makes things more confusing. Mind you we can get a lot more done this way." She smirked and her eyes were full of secrets.

"Well, I think that you are lucky. Sleeping is a waste of time, and you have no control over what you think about. Or what you say." She touched my cheek lightly with her fingertips, looking at me with a concerned expression.

"You don't like sleep?"

"No. Wait, if you can't digest anything, then what happens to the blood?" She started at me quizzically for a moment with one eyebrow raised, before she started to laugh, falling from her elbow and wrapping her arms around her waist. I smiled at her playfulness and tried to commit the sound of her laughter to memory. "What's so funny?" She looked up at me.

"Will I ever understand your train of thinking? We can be talking, and then you bring up a completely unrelated subject." She kept on laughing and I chuckled.

"Meh, that is just how I think. So will you answer the question?" She stopped laughing then, smoothing her hair and propping herself back up on her elbow.

"We need the blood to stay strong, not necessarily to live, We can not die from starvation, well I don't think that we could. Maybe but that would take ages. We don't so much as digest the blood, but it gets transformed into our venom. The venom heals us when we get hurt, it allows us to heal quickly – whether we need to attach a part of ourselves back to our body or grow a new part. The venom is also what changes however we choose to change."

"Grow a new part back!"

"That can happen, Carlsile needed to regrow three fingers after a fight back before he changed me." Wow.

"You can re grow your body parts." I said blankly. She bit her lip and nodded. "That is so incredible." I paused for a few moments, thinking about any other questions that seemed even remotly relevent.

"Is that, the venom, what makes people change?"

"Yes."

"You said that the change hurts…."

"Very much, the venom even burns and scars if you get bitten when you are a vampire – it is the only thing that can mark our skin."

"But what if you cut the skin off and then let it grow back, would the scar still be there?" She was looking at me, mouth hanging open. "What?"

"I wonder if that would actually work?" She took a few moments to think that through, before shrugging and looking at me. "So you wanted to know about the change? I nodded. "When the venom is injected, the pain starts straight away. Then when the venom starts to move through your blood stream, the fire spreads with it. After it is all through your body, which takes a surprisingly short amount of time, your whole body feels like it is on fire. The venom starts the heal all of your bones and take away your sickness, you become perfectly healthy, but then the venom starts to slowly kill your organs, everything is frozen but you still feel like everything is burning. Then it affects your skin, making everything hard and white and it changes your features."

"After a while you can start to think around the pain a bit, hear what everyone around you is doing or saying, your power will start after the venom is done with your brain. The whole process takes about three days on average. Rosalie was only two and a half, and Emmett was borderline on four days." I was quiet after she said that, thinking about the change and how I was going to survive three days of pain. She hadn't agreed to change me yet, but I was going to get her too, as long as she wanted me for that long, I wouldn't force myself upon her.

"What I said before, about you changing me. Would you?" She bit her lip and laid on her back next to me, staring at the ceiling and grabbing my hand, caressing the back of it with her finger tips.

"How can I know that that is what you want? You say that you do but what if you change your mind? There is no coming back from this. There are so many downsides to the kind of life, and I don't want you to do anything that you would regret. I couldn't stand for you to hate that life, or me because of what I did to you."

"I could never hate you, you would be giving me what I want, what I need. I could deal with all of the bad bits as long as I had you."

"But what if you change your mind about me?" she whispered brokenly. I grabbed her face in my hands and turned her head to look at me. I kissed her lips lightly, savoring the feeling and the taste.

"I could never change my mind about you. My feelings have been carved into my heart, mind and soul. I could never regret spending my life with you, as long as that is what you want."

"Edward…."

"Is that want you want?" She bit her lip and looked away from me.

"I don't want to tell you." That couldn't be good. If she didn't want to tell me that meant that she didn't want to hurt me. The only way that she could do that would be by telling me that she didn't want me like I wanted her, like she didn't need me. Because I knew that I couldn't live without her, not anymore. But she could live without me.

"I need to know." I whispered, voice breaking embarrassingly. She snapped her gaze back to me and pulled me tightly to her chest. I wrapped my arms around her waist as her started to run her hands through my hair.

"Of course I want you, and of course I want to change you, but I don't see how you could want this." My heart started to beat faster with her sweet words, and the hope rose up in my chest. She wanted me like I needed her to, and I had a chance at this.

"I thought that you liked your life, that you were alright with being what you are."

"I am, but I wasn't leaving anything behind, I welcomed my death, I thought that it was better than what I was living. But Carlisle has given me a good life, I have a family and parents that love me and I am happy with that. But the others were all giving things up, their family or their lives, opportunities that they can never have now. I never wanted kids, so that isn't a big deal now, but that really upsets Rosalie and Esme. and surprisingly Emmett. You have so much going for you, you could have a family and grow up and have a great life, and I would be taking that away from you."

"But I don't want any of those things without you." She stared at me with would-be tears in her golden eyes. She was so beautiful.

"But what if – "

"I won't change my mind."

"But what about your mum?"

"That will be hard, and I don't know what to do about her. But I will think about that and come up with something that can help her. I can make sure that she gets her closure…." That was the only thing that was wrong with this situation. Of course, she had to ask me the question that I hadn't prepared an answer for.

"Think about her, think about everything that I have said and all of the things that could happen. Talk to the others and get their stories, how they feel about what happened to them, and then decide. I am not saying no, but this is not a definite yes, alright?" I nodded enthusiastically and kissed her cheek. She laughed lightly and kicked off her shoe's and I pulled the blankets away for her. She climbed in next to me and I threw the quilt back over the top of us. I wrapped my arms around her and she buried her face in my neck. "You'll tell me if you get too cold?"

"Mmmmm." I was suddenly extremely tired, so I tightened my arms around her and buried my face in her hair, smelling her flowery scent and strawberry scented shampoo.

I fell asleep quickly, letting dream Bella greet me and spending the night with her in my mind, but with my body wrapped around the real thing.

/*&*/

I woke up to cold hands running through my hair and a soft voice ringing in my ears.

"Edward, you have to wake up."

"Mph?" I grunted. Bella laughed lightly and my heart sped up, effectively waking me up. "Bella!" I probably said that a little too loudly.

"Good Morning, you have to get up now, its quarter past seven." My eyes were greeted with her beautiful face smiling just inches from my own. I groaned and sat up, pulling her willing body with me.

"But sleepy."

"But school." She laughed at my expression and I leaned forward, resting my forehead against hers. "I have to go and get ready for school, but I'll see you there?"

"Run back here and I'll take you." She smiled again and nodded.

"Alright." She kissed me lightly and then disappeared from my window. Sighing, I staggered from my bed and went to the bathroom to get ready for school, I was sitting in the kitchen, thankful that mum had to leave early today, when Bella walked through the front door, making sure that she was noisy so that she wouldn't scare me, I assumed at least.

"Hey!" she greeted brightly at the kitchen entryway, sitting next to me and looking at the cereal quizzically.

"Hey."

"Is that any good?" She frowned at my bowl, tilting her head to the side. She scrunched up her nose.

"Does this smell any good?" She shook her head. "Well it tastes great. Want some?" I put the spoon up near her face, full of milk and fruit loops. She jumped up from the seat and started to back away. I laughed loudly at her, dropping the spoon back to the bowl and covering my mouth with one of my hands.

"Not funny. Not funny!" She pointed between me and the spoon, frowning. "You have no idea how bad that smells, dairy is probably the worst thing that you can ever smell, apart from werewolves." My laughter stopped

"Really? What's wrong with dairy?"

"Smells funny, doesn't that stuff smell bad to you too?"

"Well milk smells strange, but cheese is great." She shrugged, slowly moving towards me and eying the bowl carefully. I chuckled at her antics and got up to drain the milk.

"Alright." I said, clapping my hands together and picking up my bag. "Ready for school?" she laughed at me as I picked up her bag, grabbing my spare hand and locking the door for me as we made our way to the car.

"You have no idea how long it's been since somebody did that for me." She sighed happily as I opened the door for her.

/*&*/

"Couldn't they just take a friggin' picture or something?" I murmured to Bella as we walked through towards biology, glaring at the people who started at us, or bluntly stared. "Seriously, at least try to be inconspicuous." She chuckled gently and rubbed her thumb over my hand, relaxing my stiff posture and releasing my glare, making me smile lazily.

After we had pulled up in front of the school, next to the other's car, everyone had started to stare at us, at me opening the door for Bella, at Emmett's high five and Alice's excited squeal and hug, at mine and Bella's hands, clasped together. At first I wasn't really bothered, I was happy that they knew that Bella was with me. What did I care what they thought, as long as they stopped asking her to date them. But then we had been stared and pointed at, asked questions and given quizzical glances. All. Morning. This was getting ridiculous. They had all been slightly nervous with me at lunch, telling me that they were afraid of a negative reaction, they didn't want to scare me. I laughed at them and said ' You think that I am afraid of the big bad vampire? '. They laughed at me and relaxed. Rosalie left the cafeteria and Emmett got up to calm her, following her to the parking lot. Jasper had told me that I should come over again tonight and I had agreed, thankful that I would get to spend more time with them and hoping to get started on the vampire talks that Bella wanted me to have with her family. I had been distracted from the gossip, but now that we were free from the seclusion of the cafeteria where I had sat with my back to everyone, I was getting irritated.

"Only two more hours then we can go." Bella leaned up on her toes to whisper in my ear, and I shuddered from pleasure at the feel of her cool and sweet breath on my skin. I relaxed even more and she laughed at my expression.

"What?"

My mood wasn't improving. This was all things that I had covered before. At least we would get to do genetics again soon, I think.

"Bella." I murmured, knowing that she could hear me. She turned her head towards me and smiled. "Do you know what we're studying next?"

"No, but I can ask Alice when we get home if you want." I nodded, and went back to doodling in my notebook. I heard the unmistakable sound of paper ripping and saw paper being shoved against my elbow.

You remember what we were talking about this weekend? About what you wanted to do?

Of course, I won't be changing my mind on that, just by the way.

I smirked at her with an eyebrow raised as she rolled her eyes at what we had written.

If you can't stand to repeat this once, then what do you think will happen when you have to re-do this for the twentieth time, if not more. We can teach these classes better then the teachers.

Worth it.

And at the idea of spending the rest of my life with her, it really was.

Alice said that she wanted to talk to you about 'your vampirism' and what she thinks about the life. She doesn't want me to be there though.

Alice was always so happy, she had to be alright with this life. If Bella thought that talking to Alice would deter me, she was sadly mistaken. But I had kind of hoped to have my love there with me when I spoke to the others, I found comfort in her presence.

Alright, but I don't think that Alice could change my mind.

You would be surprised by what she has to say.

She nodded and I could tell that she would say no more on the subject for now. I bit my lip and grasped her hand under the table, content with the contact. Her skin was so soft and smooth, but hard and cold too. I knew from the questioning that she was as hard as marble, and that barely anything could break the surface or tear through it, but that's not how she felt. Her hand felt so small and delicate in my own.

I sighed in relief when we got to the gym. We were starting badminton today but needed to go through all of the theory work first. We didn't have to change and run round on the court, thrashing birdies with under budget school rackets. I could sit at the back of the stands with Bella wrapped in my arms. Try and think of a better lesson than that. I could, the ending. Coach Dwyer didn't finish his lecture so that meant that we would get another thirty minutes on theory tomorrow. Perfect. Grabbing her hand and pulling her from the gym

"Come on Bella!" I whisper yelled as Mike Newton glared at me, then looked Bella up and down and smirked. It was obvious what he was thinking about. Pig. She was My Bella.

"Anxious?" She giggled.

"Well dahh." I smirked at her over my shoulder as she started to walk faster, so that we were side by side.

"So are you sure that you are alright to talk to Alice?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be."

She shrugged. "Just wanted to make sure."

"I like Alice. She's nice and happy, I mean, confusing and kinda crazy, but happy."

"That's true." She laughed. "But just make sure not to call her crazy to her face, not anymore." We reached the car then, and Alice bounded up to me to hug me.

"Hey Edward! Hurry up and drive, we have a lot to talk about!" She pushed me to my car and opened the door for me, then pushed me in. Bella was glaring at her, before she walked around to the passenger side and climbed in.

"Sorry about that one, but you were right when you said she was confusing, you just forgot hyperactive."

"That is not an insult!" Alice called from the backseat of the Mercedes next to us. I laughed and put the car in drive, following Rosalie from the parking lot and started the commute to their house.

"So does Alice want me to be changed?" I asked, breaking the comfortable silence as we past the street that I usually went to.

"Yes, she even yelled at me for not saying yes straight away. Alice pretty much lives in her visions. If she see's something, to her it is as good as done and if she likes it, she does everything in her power to make it happen as soon as possible. That's just Alice."

"Well, has she seen me as one of you?" She didn't respond, and when I looked over at her she looked torn. "Bella?"

"She has seen you as one of us, she isn't too sure of the timing and she doesn't know how we do it, but the picture is completely clear. She only see's two options for you now, and that is the good one." Her voice was a whisper. She looked heartbroken, was the idea of me being turned that bad.

"You really don't want me to be a vampire do you?"

She whipped her head around to face me, shock written plainly on her face.

"Why do you think that!"

"Because you looked so upset."

"I wasn't upset about the thought of you being a vampire, I was sad about the alternative, the supposed 'only other option'." She took a steadying breath and looked through the window shield. She continued quietly, but the tone told me that she wasn't lying. "Of course I want you to be like us, I love you. I just want you to make sure that you know what you are getting into." I smiled at her honesty and grasped her hand, bringing it to my human lips. I wasn't going to tell her that there was no way that I would, or more like could, change my mind about her. I settled with simply saying "Alright" after I kissed her and pulling up at the front of her house. Alice had my door open before I could fully comprehend and was leaning over me too unbuckle my seatbelt and pulling me from the car, through the front door and up the stairs, with Bella screaming at her that I break. I followed silently and decided that life would be so much easier with Alice on my side.

She pulled me to her and Jasper's room. It was obvious that a female lived here, but there were distinct male qualities, like the acoustic guitar and black army boots that were next to the couch. They, like Bella, had a glass wall. Their king bed was on that wall, right in the middle. The headboard was honey coloured wood with a light gold and pale green quilt and pillow set. The bed side tables and an old fashioned dresser were made from the same coloured wood. The left side wall had two doors, probably leading to the bathroom and closet.. The right had a light gold couch the same colour as the quilt and cushions the same colour pale green. Their were two arms chairs around the couch that were the same colour. They didn't stand out, but matched the room. Next to the dresser (on the same wall as the main door) was and old fashioned changing stand in the same pale green. On each side of the closet and the bathroom doors there was a bookcase. Their was also a desk. In between the closet and bathroom doors was a honey coloured desk that had a silver laptop on it, and had papers and fashion magazines all over it. They were pilled on the floor next to the desk. Maybe Alice wasn't such a neat freak like the rest of the room made her look like.

"What do you think?!?"

I looked at her amused. "It's really nice, I like the colours."

"That's what I thought! Esme helped us design everything." She dragged me to the armchair and pointed at it, before settling herself on to the couch. She stared at me, unblinking, and I fidgeted under her intense gaze.

"So, Bella said that you wanted to talk to me."

"And you know what I wanted to talk to you about?"

"About being a vampire?" That shouldn't have sounded like a question, I already knew.

"Exactly." She nodded pointedly, determinedly, then smiled at me. "So, you want to know about my past? It's part of the story. Obviously." I nodded eagerly happy to be gaining some more insight into this family.

"Alright."


	6. Chapter 6 Alice Two And The Mother

_Previously - "So, Bella said that you wanted to talk to me."_

"_And you know what I wanted to talk to you about?"_

"_About being a vampire?" That shouldn't have sounded like a question, I already knew._

"_Exactly." She nodded pointedly, determinedly, then smiled at me. "So, you want to know about my past? It's part of the story. Obviously." I nodded eagerly happy to be gaining some more insight into this family._

"_Alright."_

"I was born in 1902 in Biloxi, a little town in Mississippi. My sister's daughter, my niece is still alive and living there. When I was human, I still had my visions. At first, when I was still a little kid, they only happened every now and then and they were small, I didn't understand: I thought that the things hadn't happened yet but I didn't get why that was wrong. But then as I grew up, they happened more and more often, and they were about bigger things. Not just the horse races but big things, apparently I knew that my neighbor was going to beat his wife to death the night before it happened. My parents thought that I was crazy, but then what I said would happen happened. They got scared, more scared then before. They were highly religious, they thought that I was possessed or something. The local priest suggested the asylum, he wasn't completely convinced that I was possessed."

"But I still can't understand, why would anyone do that to their child."

"They were scared, things like what I could do weren't as accepted as they are now."

"Couldn't you just pretend that you didn't see anything anymore?"

" Well, that would have been hard to do – we think. Even now it's hard to act normal when I get a vision and I have a vampire brain. Carlisle thinks that as a human it would have been to hard for me to act normal, and we proved his theory right. Apparently I used to spend days and nights just sitting on my bed staring at nothing or screaming. Sometimes I would have fits if something was really clear."

"Apparently?"

"I have no memories of my human life. We found a lead to my human life and when we followed everything up, we found the hospital and me and Jasper found all of their old historical records. Everything about me was in there. My parents had written all of that in there. After the neighbor thing happened when I was fourteen, my parents sent me to an asylum. We think that that is why I don't remember anything, We saw the cell's. They were dark and cold and had no windows. Plus, the electrotherapy was known to make people loose their memories. Apparently I got even worse with that, started rambling and shouting peoples names. The paper work said that I started screaming for Jasper." Her voice was laced with sadness, but also hope and love. The smile on her face seemed strange considering the topic, though it was quite romantic that she wanted him before they even met. "We still don't know how I became free, I just went missing, and we don't know how I was changed. I just woke up, and had a vision of me and Jasper meeting, and then of us meeting the Cullen's. I was eighteen when I woke up, then year was 1920. I spent thirty two years finding him."

"Thirty Two years!" I shouted, and then blushed at my behaviour.

"Yer. But he was well worth the wait, plus, he waited longer. But you already know that. " She laughed.

"If you don't mind me asking, how come it took so long? Couldn't you just see where he was?"

She chuckled. "He kept on changing his mind as too where he was going, and most of the time he was running through the forest and avoiding humans or anything recognizable."

"Sorry that I kept you waitin' darlin'." Jaspers voice floated up the stairs and Alice giggled.

"Eventually I found him in a dinner in Philadelphia. I already loved him, and he fell in love immediately and after three years, we found the Cullen's." She gave me a few moments to absorb this information. Their story was sweet, there was no denying that, but was that meant to make me re-think being changed?

"But when I woke up, I was so confused. I remembered trivial things. The country, the language, that I was a girl, proper etiquettes that had been trained into me – stuff like that. But I had no idea who or what I was. The thirst hurt but I didn't remember the change, something that is one of most peoples most memorable human memories. I only remembered Alice when I thought 'what is my name?'. Then the vision of Jasper and the Cullen's and the hunting came through and I knew what I had to do. Jasper was the one who had to confirm to me what we were. The beginning can be scary and confusing for everyone, even if you wake up like the others did, except for Jasper and Carlisle.

This kind of life can be lonely and you mostly have to exclude yourself from humans – you can talk to them, but if they get to close they can get suspicious. But having a family like this and a mate like Jasper makes all that worth the bad things.. This life is _good_. I think, or more so know, that you would like it." She paused and tilted her head, her eyes straying towards the door. "If you choose this lifestyle that is." She smiled sweetly.

"Alice?"

"Mmm."

"What was the other vision? Bella said that you saw two options for me, one being a vampire but she didn't tell me the other one." Bella walked into the room then and sat on the other arm chair. She wouldn't make eye contact with me.

"If you are going to tell him that than I should be here." She spoke to Alice, who nodded her head.

"Remember, if you decided that you didn't want to be one of us, the visions would change. But you don't want to stay human, so that is why I can't see that." So she didn't see me staying human? That was good, it meant that I was just one step closer to getting this. "The other vision was of you dying, Bella drinks from you. That vision isn't going to happen anymore though, there is like a 7% chance that it will, so just don't bleed near her for at least he next week or two." Oh.

"Why didn't you give me that much detail?" Bella asked, finally looking up to me. I smiled back reassuringly.

"Because I have ways to stop him bleeding near you for the next two weeks, or always really. Just make sure that when he shaves on the mornings that you leave. And you try not to cut yourself, use extra cream or something, I don't know how that stuff works." She shrugged.

"We can do that." I nodded as Alice's eyes glazed over. When she can back into focus, she didn't look as happy as I thought that she would.

"Alice? What did you see?" Bella put her hand on top of hers.

"The shaving thing works as far as I can see, but tomorrow when you cook dinner, just let Bella cut the vegetables. Please?" She smirked.

"O...kay?" I dragged the word out, trying to get her to tell me what had happened. Her smirk grew.

"No big deal, big knife – near severed finger. You know, the works." She shrugged, attempting nonchalance.

"I think that I'll cut the vegetables." Bella nodded, looking at me in disbelief. I could almost hear her thinking 'only _you_ could manage to do that.'.

"Men." Alice muttered so low that I only just heard. She stood gracefully and walked from the room, shaking her head..

I was pushing the speed pedal further then usual. Mum was already home, or so Alice had said, and she was getting concerned. When we were still at Chicago, I was always home before she was. I wasn't close to any of the other teenagers and didn't want to spend any more time then absolutely necessary with them. Then only places that I really ever went after school was the music store, the library or the park – where the best recreational baseball field in my part of the town was. But I was always sure to be home before her, especially after dad died. She was an easy worrier, and the fun is kind of sucked away from something with the constant 'where are you?' buzzing in my pocket. Her confusion was understandable. I hadn't wanted to move so far away from that place (strange that I didn't call Chicago home anymore, even though we had only left a matter of days ago.) and now I was home late almost everyday and spending all of my spare time with teenagers my own age, particularly girls.

I'm actually surprised that she didn't corner me and ask me what I had done to her son.

So now I was speeding away from Bella and the Cullens and towards an angry woman that had been known to make grown men cry, literally. The street came into view, and then the house, and then my mother sitting on the porch bench, looking stern but still concerned. She followed my cars actions as I drove up to the house and parked. I refused to look at her as I locked the car and made my way up the stairs.

"Hey mum." I said meekly, shoving my cold hands into my pockets.

"You look edgy."

"You look angry." She knew that I had reason to be edgy. She couldn't be to pissed though. She knew that I loved Bella, and I though that she had believed me. I tried not to let her see that that stung.

"I am not angry," My head shot up. "I am just….confused and a bit worried." I sat on the seat next to her, still refusing to make any eye contact.

"What about?"

"You're different here than you were when we lived at the old place."

"I fell in love. "

"You're sure that – you're sure that she isn't just a phase? Are you sure that you love her?"

I tensed, and had to suppress the urge to snap at her. "Of course I am sure mum, what else could this be?" My rage left me when I thought about her.

"High school hormones?" She suggested meekly – faking helpfulness.

"Mum honestly."

"Alright, alright, I guess that I am just not used to the changes yet – you're different here then you where at Chicago. That's not a bad thing, the change is just so sudden." I wouldn't bring up dad – ask her how long it took for them to fall in love: I already knew their story, mum would tell it to me and it was one of the only ones that dad would tell or would listen in on.

"I really do love her." I muttered quietly but clearly after a brief silence. She turned towards me and smiled softly – her eyes softening, loosing their fight. They had been that way for a while now. Two years, more or less.

"I know that you do sweet." She stood up and headed for the door. "I'll be seeing her tomorrow at dinner time you know?"

"You will?" That was news to me.

"Of course, you're asking her over just so that you know."

"Thankyou mother – I'll make sure that we fit your plans." I called sarcastically.

We continued with our usual routine – cooking, eating, homework, piano/television/reading. Tonight I was trying to finish the composition that I had started the other morning. It all came quite easily when I was thinking about her, naturally, like it was jut meant to be.

"That's beautiful, do I even have to ask what your inspiration was?" Mother murmured, not taking her gaze from the TV. She wasn't being ignorant or anything, she was trying not to break 'the spell' as she so often said, but she felt that she needed to comment.

"Well, this has nothing to do with the new scenery." I muttered, like her, not tearing my eyes away from the piano keys.

"So I suspected." We didn't speak again until I realized the time and kissed her head before darting up the stairs and to my bedroom. Grabbing my pajama pants I sprinted to the bathroom and showered quickly, brushing my teeth and getting dressed as fast as I could before walking at a much more reasonable pace back to my bedroom. She was sitting at the bed head, crossed lagged and staring intently at the door. She smiled at me after I walked in.

"Hey." She chirped, and I returned the greeting in much the same manner. I sat next to her on the bed.

"What happened with your mother? Was she alright?"

"She was fine, just a bit concerned." She turned to look at me, the little crease between her eyebrows. I lifted my legs from the ground and turned to face her, crossing my legs on the material. She mimicked my position, lifting herself with her arms so that she could change the way that her body was facing my. "I act different here from what I did back there." I picked up one of her hands and toyed with it, running her cool and slender fingers between my long and warm ones. "I spend more time with other people, less time at home or playing baseball or studying."

"Oh.."

"I prefer this way though." I grinned up at her.

"You can study with me – we know the answers to everything on that test." She giggled- her voice melodious and high, fitting perfectly with my deeper chuckle.

"That would not surprise me – you can't even remember how many times you've done high school."

"And College."

"How many times have you been to college?" We hadn't spoken about this.

"We don't usually go as often, but we have each been a handful of time, usually once a decade. There are new things that we can learn there – new things being discovered and everything is always changing. Medicine and the other sciences are particularly interesting, but only me and Rosalie usually do the science subjects, sometimes Emmett because he can't stand to be away from Rose for too long and Carlisle comes back every few times, you know, to see what's new, things he hasn't managed to learn yet. He gets many medical diaries through the year but he likes going to college every now and then. Either because he gets to spend more time with us, or he thinks that he can learn more that way I am not sure, but whatever works for him."

"What have you done?"

"Biology, cooking, history, social studies, medicine and a few literature degrees." She shrugged indifferently, like this was nothing unusual – but for her, it probably wasn't such a big deal.

"Bella that isn't nothing, that's amazing."

She smirked. "Well, I am glad that I have your approval Mr. Masen."

"You had it already Miss. Cullen."

"So do you have any idea what you want to study yet?" She asked after a slight pause.

"I was thinking about majoring in music, but I don't know what I want else I want to do yet." I paused, tilting my head and looking at her thoughtfully, thinking. " But medicine could be interesting, but I would probably have to major that."

"You would be a good doctor I think. You know, I have never heard you play, you'll have to show me later."

"Of course, I'll play you the new one." It was hers anyway. The song was taking the form of a lullaby, Bella's lullaby. Even though she couldn't sleep, it was the thought the counted.

"You've written a new composition?" She always seemed so interested in the trivial little things that I had to say. Other people would ask from pure common courtesy. She really cared, she really wanted to know about me.

"Yes, I have recently found some new inspiration."

"Mmmm I'm intrigued." She cocked an eyebrow at me, slowly leaning in. I met her halfway, softly pressing her lips to my own. Her taster was exquisite, I moaned. She pulled back again, her eyes dark but smiling.

"Sorry." I muttered, blushing again.

"Don't be, I am not complaining." She ran her fingers threw my hair, making me turn my head into her touch, sighing wistfully.

"I love you." If she were human she wouldn't have been able to hear me, but she wasn't human.

"I love you more."

"Doubt that." I smirked at her and she rolled her eyes, still continuing her ministrations through my hair. "Mum wants you to come over for tea tomorrow night – you don't have to of course, eating would be gross." I let my eyes close again, not willing her to see how much I wanted my mother and my love to get along.

"I will come, eating is worth the effort. I will just help to clean up so that if I put any in my napkin she won't see. "

"Are you sure?" I asked, opening my eyes to stare into her golden orbs.

"Of course, I want to get to know her better – and I need for her to trust me too."

"Aright."

- - - - - - - -

"You really don't need to do this you know." I said again. We were sitting at the table eating lunch with her family. Rosalie was picking at her salad and Alice and Jasper were playing catch with the apple again. Emmett had started laughing once Bella and I had started to speak about the upcoming dinner, and that got me to worrying again.

"I want too."

"Oh I would pay to see you eat human food again, do remember the last time?"

"Shut up." Bella looked like she would be blushing.

"What happened?" I grinned. Emmett would tell me, I took his side on the Jasper using Alice to cheat at chess thing – something that I now understood with more clarity.

"Alright, so the year was 1988, and we were at a benefit for Carlisle's work. Bella and I had a bet – who could find the biggest bear, drink him then bring him back to the house. Mine was way bigger so Bella lost, and had to eat all of the food. What we didn't know was that we were sharing a table with the director of the hospital, his wife and his daughter. His wife had constructed the menu and the daughter had helped too, she made the recipe for the cake. We didn't know that either. Bella was already upset. Me and Rosalie had a little adult time IN her car."

"Do you know how long it took me to get the smell from that thing?"

"Alice had forced her to wear this dress when she wanted to wear the white one that she had picked for the night, and Bella is a sore loser. Plus the last bet we made she lost and had to fail her gym class. So we, well Bella and the humans are, eating all of the food. We were just pushing everything round on the plate. By the time the cake came Bella was practically gagging. The humans were looking worried but hadn't said anything. After a few mouthfuls or cake Bella moaned and dropped the food and said that this shit tasted like dirt. The doctors daughter started to cry and the wife was outraged at Bella for using such language. Carlisle almost got 'asked to leave the hospital.'" Bella's face was buried in her hands but the rest of us were laughing, even Rosalie managed a smirk.

"Esme was so ashamed." She shook her head, going back to stab at her salad. It was a very good thing that she didn't eat humans.

"I propose a bet!" Emmett exclaimed, raising his fist into the air and drawing the attention of the teenagers sitting around us. In a quieter voice he continued. "What are you having for dinner tonight?" He directed the question at me.

"Is their anything that is more manageable for you?"

"Avoid milk at all costs." Alice chirped.

"And cheese – or all dairy products." Jasper scrunched up his face.

"Chicken is probably the most manageable."

"Well then we are having chicken and vegetables." I looked back at Emmett after nodding at my love, running my fingers over her own.

"Remember to let Bella cut them." Alice giggled. I rolled my eyes.

"Are you having dessert?"

"Dunno."

"Alright well if you have dessert, and Bella eats one piece of chicken, one serving of whatever the dessert is and all of the vegetables on her plate – and there has to be a lot, not just ten little pieces – then she wins the bet. If she throws it all up within a half hour of leaving your house then I win. We will all be waiting for you just outside the house."

"What are the winnings?"

"A new car."

"Nope, we both love our cars."

"The loser has too….eat jelly?"

"Drink a gallon of milk?"

"No Bella, I love you too much to make you do that."

"Oh! The loser had to go to the next medical conference that Carlisle goes to."

"Deal!" They reached across the table and shook hands, sealing the deal. We were all silent for a moment, some of us (me) thinking about why Bella would so dislike going to a medical conference when she had a degree in medicine. Maybe that was a part of her plan though, so I wasn't going to ruin that for her.

"So who wins?" I asked Alice, who started to giggle.

"You wish, but this one is going to be good. Just don't start another betting war."

"_Please." _Stressed Rosalie, looking at her husband with wide eyes.

"What happened the last time?" This family was so full of surprises, they had decades of experience and stories and I somewhat feared that I would never get to know them all – and I wanted to know everything that there was to know.

"The whole thing lasted about two years. During that time, Emmett posed as a bikini model, went to a nightclub in women's clothes and many other various things. Bella got a teenage to propose to her, pretended to cry at the hair dresses because she complemented the length of her hair and joined the circus for two weeks." Alice giggled.

"Hey, I kicked ass on the trapeze. Even you said so." Bella pointed at her sister, raising one of her delicate eyebrows. "And eat your food." Now she pointed at me. I rolled my eyes and started to eat my sandwhich. The food wasn't all that appealing and I was looking forward to the meal tonight, anything had to be better than this.

"But this taste's gross, I think that the bread is slightly stale." I poked at the bread, wondering how serving this shit was actually legal.

"Take mine then, I think that this one is alright."

Shrugging, I took her sandwhich and replaced it with my own. This one was better, but only marginally so. "Still like home made food better, but I couldn't be bothered making anything." Emmett laughed. "What?"

"Humans are so lazy. That stuff smells fine to you, and it would only take a few seconds to make."

"But I don't like mornings, and I would have to get up earlier."

"It's just sleep, what's so great about sleep?"

"Nothings great about sleep, it's just that waking up is a pain in the ass."

He snorted and rolled his eyes, muttering "Humans."

The rest of Tuesday passed by uneventfully, apart from the fact that I never had to let go of Bella. We were still getting lectured in Gym and we had watched a video in biology. The constant comforting hum of electricity that passed through not only my skin, but now my entire being whenever we touched was magnificent.

"Do you feel it too?" She asked me suddenly as we were walking towards the parking lot. My car was parked next to the 'Cullen spot' which was good because now I only had to walk a little bit to get to the cover of the cafeteria and the overhang of the brick classrooms – meaning that Bella and I didn't get as wet as everybody else.

"What do you mean?"

"The….humming. No, the current…." She sighed and seemed to struggle finding the words, so I helped her out.

"You mean the feeling when we touch, the electric humming that runs through my body? That one?"

Her smile was so bright that it could light up this town. "That's the one that I'm talking about."

"So you feel it too?"

"Of course I feel it too." I smiled and lifted our intertwined hands, placing a kiss on the top of hers and smiling over them at her glittering eyes.

"What are we feeling, and why do I get the distinct impression that this conversation isn't pg rated."

"Because you're a pig." Bella answered Jasper without tearing her eyes from mine.

"Hey." His cries of disapproval were drowned away when Alice, his tiny little wife, shoved him into the car and shut the door in his face.

"Ignore my husband, I'll see you tomorrow Edward, and I don't know when I'll see you Bella. But remember, let Bella cut the vegetables!" She cried as she reopened the door and shoved Jasper over, until he pulled her into the car and leaned over her, slamming the door closed. Rosalie took off from the parking lot but not even the beep coming from the old rusted Toyota that he went past could tear my attention from my Bella.

"Come on lets go before we get caught up in the rain again." She sighed, breaking our eye contact but not letting go of my hand as she walked over to the passenger side door, which I opened to her. She didn't say anything about that habit but I knew that she liked it. She had grown up in a completely different time where women were treated with a hell of a lot more respect then they are these days – opening a door for a woman was a necessary custom when she was growing up.

"Do we have everything that we need at your place?" She asked me quietly, fiddling with the fingers on my spare hand that I had placed on the console.

"Yer I think so, if not we can just substitute anything that we need."

She nodded. "Cool." And I chuckled at her attempt to sound 'modern'. She rolled her eyes. "I should warn you though, I don't really remember how to cook – it's been a while."

"Understandable when you and nobody in your family have to eat."

She laughed. When we got home, Bella made me do my homework saying 'you only get to do high school for the first time once.'

"But what about all the other times?"

"I said the first time." She muttered, looking at the Spanish text book that I had tossed on the ground. "You really don't like Spanish do you?"

"When am I even going to go to Spain?"

"Spain is great, except for all the sun – but we have ways to work around that."

"You've been to Spain?"

"Of course. Esme went through a stage where she was obsessed with Spanish architecture so we all went there for a month. We have a holiday house in Texas that looks like it jumped from a Spanish magazine." She rolled her eyes.

"But Texas is sunny."

"Yer, but Jasper likes to go there every now and again. He actually managed to track down some of his family and some of them still live there. He likes to check in every now and again, make sure that they're alright. He got Rosalie to act as a lawyer for them once because they ran into a spot of trouble."

"Wow." That was impressive. "Rosalie has a law degree?" She nodded.

"So you need help with Spanish? I'm fluent." Well isn't she just full of surprises.

"Great." About an hour later, all of the homework that I had been set – which was more then necessary considering that I had just spent seven hours and fifteen minutes there – was done, Spanish and trig and all. Bella had here done in about ten minutes, her pale hand flying across the page like there was no tomorrow. We were on the couch now, her laying in front of me with my arms wrapped around her waist

"Where else have you been?' I murmured into the top of her head. I felt her shrug underneath me as she turned her head away from the TV, my lips were met with her cool forehead instead of her strawberry scented hair.

"We've been to almost every country, but some times only the airports. A few smaller countries we haven't been to and me and Alice have never been to the middle east. But there are still finer things that we haven't seen, sights and places that we've always wanted to visit. Plus, the places that we've been have developed since we were there last."

"But it would have been interesting to see them at that point, to think of everything that Carlisle has lived through."

"You can ask him about it if you like, I know for a fact that he wants to get the chance to know you better, answer any questions that you have."

"Even if they aren't about vampire lifestyle?"

She chuckled. "No, they don't have to be about vampire lifestyle – though I know that you're still interested in that."

I smirked, looking at her eyes and seeing that she was looking up at me through her thick lashes. "Is that an invitation to start asking?"

"Now?"

"Yes."

"Go ahead." She rolled in my arms, pressed against me in a sinful way. I shuddered and she smirked, obviously knowing where my teenage thoughts were headed, though in my defense, her eyes had darkened and her lids were slightly hooded.

"Erm.." I cleared my throat and tried to get my thoughts out of the gutter.

_Don't be run by your hormones Masen.._

"Is there an age limit on how long you can live?"

"Naturally – none that anyone has ever reached and there are some really really old vampires, people that make Carlisle look like an infant. But sometimes, if there is someone that the Volturi think is a threat to them – because they have to much power or are to old, they think that they know to much or have seen to much, then the Volturi will get rid of them. That has only happened a handful of times but there are still some people that are older then those three." Her eyes glazed over, obviously she was thinking about another time, another place. Had she met any of these 'Volturi' or the people that they had 'gotten rid of'? Was there a threat to her? She shivered. "Sorry."

"Have you ever met the Volturi?" I asked her.

"No, but Carlisle lived with them for a short period of time ages ago. He was there for a few decade but eventually he got sick of the constant pressure that they put on him to change his ways, plus even though they are quite civilized, he couldn't live in a place where so much innocent human blood was spilled – he doesn't see the need. Of course, he would never ever pressure somebody to this lifestyle, but there was never even another option for him – he refused to be a murder." I could see the pride shining in her eyes and it made me that much more eager to get to know Carlisle.

"So they are human eaters?"

"Yes, but they are all very civilized considering that. Usually human eaters stick to travelling in no more than groups of three, but there are so many of them with the Volturi."

"And who exactly are they?" Her eyes widened in confusion and then in shock, before she giggled.

"How silly of me, I kept on explaining them and you have no idea who or what they are." She took a steadying breath. "The Volturi is made up mostly of three different men, Caius, Marcus and the unspoken leader, Aro. They are all over a millennia old, and have taken ruling of our world. They enforce the laws and make sure that the humans don't know about us."

"You have laws!"

"Only one," She giggled. "we have to make sure that the humans never become aware of our existence. If somebody makes a spectacle of themselves or tells the humans – or is a threat to the Volturi's power, then the Volturi and their guard will step in and…. Take care of them."

"So they could kill you for telling me." She was silent, frozen in my arms and not even breathing. "Bella," My voice was a lot less demanding and persuasive then I wanted, and a lot more scared then I would have liked.

"We won't let that happen."

"How can you be sure?"

"By the next time that we or anyone that knows about you sees the Volturi you'll…."

"Be dead or changed?" I finished for her, and she winced.

"Exactly, and the Denali's don't know about you yet, and they are like family to us – they won't tell anybody – not that that would matter if they saw Aro."

"Why not?"

"Aro can read every thought that you have ever had just by touching you, extremely bad if you've done something wrong but extremely good if you haven't done the wrong .thing."

"Every thought!"

"Every thought, except from mine and whoever I choose to protect. I think that there might be a few other people with shields, but theirs don't work the same as mine, Aro can still hear their thoughts."

"Wow."

"We've gotten so off topic." She giggled.

"Were the Volturi always in power?"

"No the Romanians used to be in charge but the Volturi over threw them – it's amazing that they are still alive." She got that far away look in her eyes again.

"Have you even met them?"

"Yes I have actually, they ran into us about three decades ago, they are kinda freaky but extremely interesting."

"How old are they?"

"Older then the Volturi, but still not the oldest."

"That is insane."

"Not in my world." She smirked lightly up at me. "Anything else?"

"Will you change me."

"Nice try." She rolled her eyes as she got up off of the couch, walking away from the living room and towards the kitchen.

"But I was serious, I haven't changed my mind on that yet – nor will I."

"You haven't talked to everybody yet."

"Doesn't matter." I called, getting off the couch and following her into the kitchen. She was getting all of the groceries that we would need to cook dinner.

"You do the chicken, I'll do the vegetables – we don't need you bleeding out or missing any of your limbs."

"Can vampires be hurt?"

"Of course." I could practically hear her rolling her eyes, and felt my stomach clench.

"How?"

"We can only be hurt by other vampires, shape shifters like the ones in La Push or the real werewolves." She stopped moving for a second, before turning to look at me over her shoulder. She gulped and looked back at the vegetables. "To kill us they need to rip us apart and then burn the pieces."

Was she serious? How do you respond to that?

"Are you alright?" She asked me softly, still not turning around.

"I'm fine." We worked in silence mostly for the remainder of the time, her chopping at a human pace and me cooking the chicken. I laughed at her repulsed face – her cute little nose scrunched up and a little v in between her eyebrows.

"How does that smell nice to you?"

"How does this smell bad!" I chocked out between my laughter.

"It's dead animal – even chicken blood is gross. Chicken blood to me is like eating…. What's something really gross?"

"Veal?" It sounded like a question.

"Yer, like veal. Cow tastes gross too." My laughter reduced to a chuckle. "So when will you're mum be here?"

"Anytime now."

"Oh, I think that I can hear her turning down the street now, I'll set the table." She was a blur through the kitchen and then the dinning room, before returning back to the kitchen and standing in front of me.

"I have no idea what just happened." I muttered with a blank face. That speed was going to take some getting used to. Her face was remorseful as she glanced up at me.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, I'll be going at that speed some time."

She rolled her eyes. "So determined to be a vampire – what is so exciting that you want to do this."

"I want you forever."

She sighed. "You don't just want it so that – "

"Hey guys! Ohh this smells great!" My mother barged through the door, cleanly interrupting whatever it was that Bella was about to say.

"Hey mum! What were you saying?" I whispered that last part to Bella.

"Later." She muttered, before plastering a smile on her face and turning around to face her mother.

"Hello Ms. Masen, how was your day?"

"It was wonderful dear, just let me go upstairs and freshen up and then we can talk." She smiled at me and then walked briskly up the stairs. I turned around to try to continue the conversation that we had been having, but she cut me off.

"Is that supposed to be doing that?" She pointed her hand over towards the stove and tilted her head to the side. I turned around and looked at the stove – where the chicken was spitting violently from the heat. I cussed, apologized to Bella and ran towards the stove – turning off the heat and trying to salvage the chicken breast that I had been attempting to cook, all the while Bella was giggling madly the whole while. I turned the heat down to almost off and grabbed the freshly cut vegetables, putting them in the freshly oiled pan that I hadn't seen Bella put in the stove.

"We should have already cooked those right?"

"Probably but too late now." I shrugged, having bigger things on my mind then cooking vegetables. What had she been about to say? She had looked….distressed. I could hear my mother walking on the stairs again.

"So, how was school guys?" Did this kind of conversation come naturally to all parents? Because Esme and Carlisle didn't do this but all of the other times that I had gone to somebody's house, their parents always asked this question.

"It was fine." I answered noncommittally.

"Nothing overly eventfully." Bella chirped in from next to me. I smiled over at her, enjoying that her eyes no longer held any sadness, like they had before Elizabeth intruded. I mean, I honestly loved my mother but I kinda wished that it was just me and Bella here. That way we could finish the conversation and I could kiss her until I was going to pass out, something that my mother certainly wouldn't appreciate watching.

"Dinner's ready," I told them, poking the carrot and checking the crispness. "could you get some drinks please mum?" She nodded and, after asking Bella what she wanted, got all of us waters and headed to the dining room to put them on the table.

"Here let me get that for you." Bella grabbed one of the plates, before I stopped her from moving away and kissing her lips lightly.

"You sure that you're alright?" I muttered, closing my eyes and breathing in her freesia scent.

"Of course, I'll tell you later tonight." I opened my eyes and stared at her, her golden eyes looking up at me. "Come on," Her face brightened. "Let's go eat." I laughed at her fake enthusiasm.

"What's so funny?" My mother poked her head around the arch separating the two rooms.

"Oh nothing, just Bella being sarcastic." Bella ducked her head, muttering something about being a vampire and blushing.

"So Bella," My mother started after we had started to eat. Bella had only grimaced slightly when she started to eat the chicken, but after the first few bites I couldn't even tell that she suffered from any discomfort.

_Oh no, _I thought_, She's started._

"where are you from?"

"Well I was born in Chicago, but after Esme and Carlisle adopted me we moved up to Alaska. Carlisle has some family up there and we wanted to be closer to them."

My mother nodded, taking in this new information – some of which she already knew from what I had told her.

"What about your brother and sisters? Edward told me that you had a few…." She trailed off, looking up at Bella after popping a piece of chicken into her mouth.

"Yes, Emmett, who was adopted after me was from Tennessee. Alice, who was adopted just after him was born in Mississippi but Jasper and Rosalie were both born in Texas, their twins."

"Big range." My mother nodded as Bella chuckled.

"Unfortunately, Jasper takes being from the south seriously, never ever mention the civil war around him – you never get him to shut up." She grinned.

"Your brother likes history?" My mothers head shot up from her plate, curiosity sparkling in her green eyes.

"Yes, specifically the civil war, he's always reading books about it and comparing them to other things that he's read. He was ecstatic the day we found that one of the Major's in the war had the same first name at him." Bella looked at me slyly, mischievous gleaming in her eyes. I snorted, almost choking on my chicken, remembering the day when I had discovered Jaspers true identity in history class. "You alright?"

"I'm fine." Elizabeth continued to quiz Bella for the next extremely drawn out hour and a half, the longest meal that I've ever had. Bella was good though, she never faltered in her answering, but I could see her slowly becoming paler….if that were possible….and she was starting to look sick by the time I finally pointed out the time and suggested that we have some dessert. Bella and I insisted on clearing the plates and getting the food, squatting away my mothers protests that she help us.

"How are you holding up?" I asked her quietly as I scraped the plates into the bin and she dished up the ice cream.

"I'm fine, just don't know how much longer I can hold this in. Dairy is even worse but I just can't loose. I would never hear the end of that." She chuckled weakly.

"You look nauseous." I told her, wrapping my arms around her waist and leaning my head on her shoulder as she dropped the spoon. She turned around in my arms and snaked her arms around my neck.

"Well, I'm sure that to a human that would have tasted fantastic, but to me…."

"That tasted worse than chicken blood." I finished for her, savoring the sound of her laughter.

I ate as quickly as possible, and Bella followed my lead. Mum was shooting us suspicious looks, but I couldn't find it in me to care. Bella had to be so sick right now.

"Thankyou Elizabeth, I really had a great time tonight." Bella hugged my mother while we stood at the front door – about to leave - after she had continuously been told that she should call my mother Elizabeth, that Mrs. Masen was to formal. We were sitting in the car before Bella started to speak.

"You know that I was going to stay tonight right – if that's ok."

"Of course! I just figured that me offering to drive you would make more sense then Carlisle coming over and then driving back home without you, plus," I smirked over at her. "we still have that bet with Emmett." She laughed.


	7. Chapter 7 The Anniversary

Emmett was standing in the front yard, along with Jasper and Alice when we got back to Bella's place. He almost ripped the hinges off of my car after we had parked and I glared at him for that. He just laughed, saying something about being threatened by the teenage human.

"Alright! So how long since Bella ate the food – I understand that you had ice cream?"

"Yes, and I ate all of the food on my plate – both times." Bella looked positively ill – clutching her stomach and biting her bottom lip.

Emmett boomed a laugh and patted her on the back, ignoring her moans of protest. I think that that was why he did that, he was too close to loosing the bet at this point because Bella only had about ten minutes until she finished the half hour. When I told Emmett so, he rolled his eyes and said that there was no problem, but I could see the caution in his eyes.

"So how was the night with the mother?" Jasper asked, leaning against Alice who glared at him, before shoving him to the right and laughing while he stumbled.

"I am not a leaning post!"

"No you're too short for that – Jazz is too tall. You could work for Bella though." She turned her glare on Emmett, who actually shrunk back a little bit.

"I'll be inside waiting for your apology which, just by the way, will be in fifteen minutes." And with that little Alice stuck her nose up in the air and marched inside, slamming the door behind her. Jasper looked distraught.

"Dude! Why did you have to go for the size, anything but the size! I'm gunna have to go there and sort that out when this is over jackass."

"Stop being such girl Jazz, watch me win the bet." Jasper rolled his eyes but turned his attention to Bella anyways.

"How much longer?" She moaned, letting go of my hand and wrapping both of her arms around her mid section.

"Only five minutes sweetie." I cooed to her, loosing a hint of manliness and wrapping my arm around her shoulders. She nodded against my side and turned into me.

"You are so whipped." Jasper smirked, looking at me. I shrugged, not unable to deny that because he could feel my guilt at lying and not at all troubled at him knowing that anyways. I could get a badge, you know 'whipped and proud' or something like that. That would make Bella laugh.

"Like you're any different Jasper, you run to Alice's every beck and call." Bella mumbled from my side. Emmett snorted. "And you, you deal with Rose's mood swings and follow her round like a little lost puppy, if that isn't whipped than I don't know what is." That shut him up.

"Whatever." He grumbled, crossing his massive arms across his massive body. He was like a giant.

"How much more now Alice?" Jasper said, as if she were still standing next to us. "Good."

"She didn't say anything." I said, confused as he turned his smirk to me.

"Not that you could hear human boy. We have vampire hearing, there is only two minutes left." I nodded, blushing at my ignorance, which caused Emmett to laugh again.

"What?" I questioned him.

"Your human reactions, there are so funny. The only thing that could beat the blushing would be if you were really clumsy."

"You mean like I was?" Bella grumbled from my side.

"Well you still are clumsy – but I had never seen you as a human. I imagine that seeing your constant blush and trip routine as a human would have made me laugh." He nodded seriously, sounding like this was the most obvious thing ever.

"Time's Up!!" Alice called from the second story window. The next few moments were a blur – all that I could comprehend was Emmett's loud swearing and Bella shooting from my arms and possibly in the direction of the forest.

"Emmett!!" Esme's surprisingly shrill voice came from the now open front door. "That's enough!"

"Sorry mum." He called, looking at his giant hands.

"Don't you pull the mum card Emmett!" She scolded him while Jasper and I were bent over in hysterics.

"But now I have to go to that medical conference with Carlisle!" He whined. He looked so close to stamping his foot, and that thought just made me laugh more.

"Hey what's wrong with that!?" Carlisle was now standing next to his wife with a look of rejection plastered on his features.

"No I didn't mean – it's not that I'm going with you…but - conference – those things are boring! I don't know anything about medicine!" Emmett chocked out, flustered.

"Well that's why you go – to learn."

"The funny thing is that I actually like them – me loosing wasn't that big of a deal Emmett. But you have fun alright?" Bella smiled sweetly at him as she came walking from the forest, looking much more better than she did a few moments ago.

"Bullshit!" Emmett cried while he ignored Esme's calls of protests. This was too much, tears were streaming down my face now, and having Jasper here wasn't helping either.

"Come on," Bella grabbed my hand. It was a good thing for her super human strength or she wouldn't have gotten me moving, but she managed to drag my still laughing form up the porch stairs and then the other two flights. By the time we got to her room my laughter had subsided but I was getting confused as to why we were here. Mum would by pissed if I wasn't home soon and Bella was planning on coming back to my place now anyways.

"Why are we up here?"

"I'll have a shower so that I don't have to come back in the morning."

"Huh, good thinking." What an articulate reply. Even since I moved here my vocabulary seemed to be limited – I blame the rain.

"Alright, I'll be done in five minutes – you don't have to stay in here if you don't want. Be right back." She kissed my cheek then blurred to the wardrobe, and then the bathroom – leaving me standing there with my hand stuck to me cheek, feeling not only the coolness but the electricity that still remained on the surface of my skin. I sighed wistfully and plopped onto her bed. This room still amazed me every time that I came into it, who could ever get sick of that view? The forest spread on for miles and you could see the river winding through the green trees.

I couldn't help but let my mind stray to the conversation in the kitchen, for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about that – the look in her eyes, the v between them and the way that her lips turned down at the corners. Then it hit me, the one person who would be able to tell me, or at least tell me if I needed to be concerned. Just as I decided to ask her, the little pixie herself appeared at the doorway with an arched eyebrow.

"Will you tell me?"

"Nope – but you don't need to be concerned."

"If I don't need to be concerned then why – "

"I answered one of your questions honey, be happy with that." I laughed at her, that was fair enough.

"What aren't we telling?" Bella asked as she walked from the bathroom and towards me and the bed, sitting gracefully next to me as she towel dried her hair – vampire style. I was sure that her hair would get knotted from drying that to fast, but maybe un-knotting was a perk to vampire hair. Why am I putting so much thought into hair?

"Oh nothing dear," Alice chimed, skipping from the room – looking more like she was floating. 'I'll see you two tomorrow at school tomorrow, I have an apology to accept." Just them Emmett's voice could be heard, calling out for Alice. Bella stared after her, before shrugging and turning to me.

"Ready to go?"

"As long as you're coming with me." I smiled at her, hoping that she could get a hint of just how much I loved her. Standing up, I offered her my hand. "So Emmett's really going to apologies to Alice?"

"Only because he just had a fight with Rosalie and he needs to know how to make it up to her. She probably won't tell him for a while." She laughed. When we got to the living room, Rosalie was glaring at her husband, I felt myself shrink back from that expression. She was the only generally scary one from the family. Emmett was apologizing profusely but I could only just hear him. He started to defend himself but that wasn't what she wanted to hear. She threw the closest available thing at him – a vase that was resting on the little table next to the couch. He didn't bother ducking and they porcelain shattered on impact with his body.

"Alright, time to go. By you two." She waved at Esme and Carlisle who had just appeared at the stairs. They waved back at us and Bella started to shove me towards the door.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Probably, but that's not worth talking about, They fight all the time, not a big deal anymore. Just as long as you're not in the house when they finish and then start to make up."

"Why what's wrong with that?"

"Erm.." She ducked her head as I looked over at her, sitting in the passenger side of the Volvo. "They tend to be quite….loud?"

"Loud? What do they need to be loud about?" She wouldn't look me in the eyes now, opting instead to stare threw the window and to the forest. "Bella? Oh….." I got it now. I'm sure that she could feel the heat of my blush from where she was, I chuckled weakly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Is your mum going to be angry that you're home late?"

"I'll just tell her that Esme invited me in – if that's alright."

"Of course." Bella smiled over at me.

Bella climbed up the wall of the house as I made my way inside and to the kitchen where my mother was making a coffee.

"What took you so long?"

"Esme invited me in, I hope that that's alright?" My response sounded more like a question. I didn't like having to lie to my mother and avoided doing so. I never really needed to until now.

"Of course, that's fine. You seem to be quite close to that family." She eyes me skeptically, it was times like this that I wished that I could read minds. That would be sure a cool gift, but I think that constantly having everything that everyone was thinking floating around inside of your head would be irritating, unless you could turn all of the voices off?

"Well they're all great people. Esme and Carlisle are both so kind and Emmett and Jasper are really funny." Mum nodded, still looking at me with a certain gleam in her eyes. "Well I am going to go and have a shower and then go to bed, I am stuffed." I smiled lazily at her. She bid me goodnight and I went to my room, kissing Bella on the forehead before grabbing my pajama's and going to take a shower.

"So what were you going to say earlier tonight, before my mum came home?" I asked her as I stretched out beside her on my bed. She bit her lip as she curled into me and I automatically wound my arms around her waist, pressing my face into her hair. "You promised that you would tell me." I reminded her.

"Why do you want to be a vampire?" She asked me quietly.

"I've told you, I want to be able to be with you."

"You can be with me as a human."

"Not the same. I want us to be equals."

"We are though." She protested.

"Not completely. I don't want to be the vulnerable human that you always have to worry about, I want to be able to protect you, I want to be able to help you and run with you and hunt with you." She flinched when I said that. "What's wrong with what I just said?"

"The thought of you watching me hunt is……..strange to say the least. I get that if you get change you will definitely see that, but as a human that would be too dangerous, and it's difficult to think of you hunting as a vampire."

"I think that watching that would be interesting." I shrugged, meaning every word. "I don't just want the living forever on earth part, if it weren't for you I probably wouldn't want this at all. But this is what you are, I want to be with you here as long as I can."

"So you don't just want me for the vampire part?" She whispered, tensing. I froze, my mouth opened as I looked over at her. After I didn't reply for a few moments she looked up at me and, upon seeing my shocked face, quickly tried to amend her words. "Look I know that you don't just want that –"

"No!!"

"What?"

"How could you even think that, you think that I would really just pretend to love you so that you could change me?!" I tried not to let her see how that hurt me, but of course she did. The next thing that I knew she was straddling my waist with her soft hands on either side of my face.

"I am sorry Edward it's just that," She struggled to find the words. "I have just gotten so used to the thought that I would never find anyone – that I was un-wantable, unlovable and that I would never find someone to love me or a mate. The thought that someone like you could love someone like me is just that strange that I find myself wanting to make sure that all of that is real." I put my hands on either side of her face and kissed her with as much passion as I could muster up, pulling her further up so that she wouldn't feel just how much this affected me. She did though, I felt her gasping against my lips and then she kissed me more forcefully then ever.

"You know that I only want this because I want you."

"I know." She smiled my smile, that smile, at me and kissed me again. I spent that night wrapped up in Bella, kissing her until well past midnight and sleeping with my arms wrapped around her torso, hers wrapped around my waist.

Today was mine and Bella's one month anniversary – the best month of my life. My relationship with Bella was getting better and better by the minute – I was so in love with her that my chest hurt, I felt like I was going to burst with the amount of adoration that I felt for her, her smile that lit up my world, her sweet bell-like laugh, those wide eyes that I lost myself in more then I would like to admit and just……..her. The family, which I sometimes mentally referred to as my family, were more excepting then ever. Rosalie didn't leave the room every time that I entered one and Alice had even tried to drag me shopping. Bella had to remind her that I wasn't a girl that she could play Barbie with for a week – Alice said that she knew that, she just wanted to play Ken. I tried to run away from her then, even though I knew that that was practically pointless unless Bella stopped her from following. I beat Emmett at that messed up chess game where I have two Kings and beat Carlisle at guitar hero. I think that my mother was developing a crush on my Bella, she always wanted her to come over and too have dinner with us – which proved difficult for Bella but we still managed, we just made sure that we cleaned up afterward, either that or we would swap plates after I had eaten most of mine and we would serve her less. I always slept less those nights because I was so full that I couldn't sleep, on the plus side that meant lots of time kissing – she didn't seem to mind. Those nights though she would have to hunt, but she was almost always back by the time that I woke up. She was everything.

I hadn't brought up the conversation of the whole 'vampirism' thing even though I was more sure then ever that that was what I wanted, I wasn't going to give up and if she thought that I was she had another thing coming. I hadn't spoken to any of the others and I had decided to speak to her about that. I met her at my bedroom window, sweeping her up to my arms and kissing her good morning, again.

"Well good morning to you too!" She giggled, breathless, even though she didn't need to breathe.

"Good morning to you love." I muttered, whilst my face buried itself in her neck, scattering kisses all up her neck.

"Mmmmm," She murmured

"Happy anniversary." I continued to kiss her, not bothering to tell her that we had to leave now or we would be late.

"Seems like more then a month doesn't it love?"

"Feels like forever." I grabbed her tighter. This was the perfect opportunity for the vampire conversation. "Speaking of forever…." Smooth Masen real smooth.

"You still want to talk to the others." I nodded. "Later today, after school?" I nodded again. "We can tell your mother that you're coming over for dinner." I grinned. I had wanted to take her out to celebrate, but what do you do for a date when the girl can't eat? I couldn't take her to a restaurant, there wasn't anything cultural within a four hour drive (If she drove) and she didn't really like going to the movies because of the smell.

"Great." She kissed me again.

"Now come on, our we'll be late." She giggled.

"Do we even have to go, I'll learn all of that next time." I groaned after she had pulled me from the window.

"I'm not going to drag your grades down."

"But I have already done all of this – still!"

"Well……..whatever, we still have to go. Me and the others need to save up all of our absent days for when it's sunny."

"But this is Forks." I laughed. "How often is it Sunny?"

"I'm taking Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off because of the sun, which is strange because there is going to be a storm on Wednesday night." Today was Tuesday.

"What! But that's the rest of the week. What am I meant to do without you at school for three days." She shrugged in reply. "Bella!" I wined, pulling on her hand and leaning in to kiss her soft neck.

"Then skip with me." She shuddered.

"Really?" I asked. I had been planning on doing so anyway, but it was nice that she offered.

"Of course, three uninterrupted days with you."

"Will they call our parents though?" I couldn't convince my mother to let me have three days off of school – unless I told her that I was camping with the Cullens. But would she let me?

"Well, we can ask her if you can come camping with us for a few days, that way you could stay the night, if that's what you wanted." My heart leapt and possibly stopped for a few moments. "Or if she says no then we can just get Esme to impersonate her voice and then call the school and tell them that you're sick."

"I'll ask her about the camping tonight." I nodded, probably too enthusiastically because she giggled at me. "We could even get Jazz to throw persuasion or acceptance or something like that at her." She giggled again.

"Alright, well we'll ask Alice later if that works, but for now where going to be later so lets go." She picked me up and then we were at the door.

"I am getting used to that." I nodded at her, opening the door for her and then locking it behind us when we had left.

"That's good, wouldn't want you to get sick every time that I ran with you."

"Are we going to be doing that often?"

"Well, they is a storm tomorrow night, there will be thunder and lightening there and Alice doesn't see the nomads turning up." There had been three nomads running through the area, there had been a few murders up in the woods and some closer to town, the human police where blaming them on an animal attack but me and the Cullens knew better. They where all distressed about the loss of lives and about any possible threat to them and the rest of the humans. When I asked, they said that they could easily fight and win with their numbers, but that if anyone got suspicious that they would have to leave, which needed to be avoided now more then ever. When I asked why they said that they couldn't leave me behind, they said that I was family now. That had been a great day, Bella had taken me to this beautiful meadow just before and I had been allowed to stay the night. I almost teared up when they said that though, being in love was making me loose my balls.

"So?" I questioned, coming back from my musings to see Bella looking at me, confused. I must have zoned out for longer then I realized. I smiled sheepishly and blushed, again.

"So," She giggled, letting me open the door for her before sitting. I closed the door and went around to the drivers side. She continued for me. "when there is a storm with thunder and lightning we play baseball."

"You play baseball?" She nodded. "Why can't you do that anytime?"

"Because with the force that we hit the balls, it's too loud. The noise sounds like thunder and lightning and that would be to conspicuous. We have a whole heap of bats and balls because they only last a game or two with the force that we hit with."

"Wow." That was pretty impressive.

"We will probably play tomorrow, and you can come watch if you want. Otherwise we can stay home."

"Oh no, this is something that I have got to see." I grinned widely, the superhero worthy stuff that vampires can do constantly amazed me.

"Alright," She laughed. "I'll make sure that we play." We pulled into the car park then and were greeted by Emmett pulling open Bella's door and shouting into the car.

"We get to play baseball tomorrow children!"

' Says the man that acts like a child, and that can't use big words.' I thought dryly.

"So, Edward, our baseball is a little different to yours…."

"Ha already knows Emmett." Alice's voice floated through the car and we watched as Emmett started to pout.

"Bella! I wanted to tell him!"

"To bad Emmett, move." She shoved her giant of a brother from her way and started to leave the car. I chuckled at their antics and than followed her example. There was nobody around when I looked, and I turned to them, my adopted family.

"Has the bell already rung?" They nodded at me, explaining that Emmett wanted to tell me about the baseball match and that Alice hadn't seen Bella explaining until just before she actually did, and then that they decided not to tell their brother. Bella laughed at them and then grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the english block for our form classes. Alice skipped up to meet us.

"Have a good night you two?"

"Don't you already know?"

"I was busy last night." She answered me, winking. I shook my head and looked away.

"At least you don't have to live with her." My love muttered, sending a sly glance my way.

"Yet." Alice said smugly as she skipped to her class, she was in the last classroom, Bella's english class.

"I'll see you soon." I kissed Bella lightly, squeezing her hand as then letting her go so that she could go to class. I walked to my classroom and apologized to the teacher for being late. He marked my name off of the list and continued on with his announcements. We were finishing the 'Romeo and Juliet' section of the english program, and the teacher was giving us our final grades for the project. My A was mainly due to Bella, she had that play memorized and could help me whenever I asked for her to.

I gladly met her at the history classroom, taking her hand on top of the desk, not caring about the teachers disapproving stare. We were watching another video today, so I didn't have to release my hold on her for the whole lesson. This teacher made us watch way too many videos, but I got to keep constant contact with Bella opposed to writing notes, so who was I to complain?

Unwillingly, I let go of her after walking her to the foreign languages class before going to my trigonometry class. We passed each across campus as we switched blocks, stopping to say hello before hurrying to get to our next class. It would be so much easier if one of us just swapped our trigonometry class so that we could be in the same one, then we could be in the classroom next to each other when we had foreign languages at the same time. I know that there is another Spanish class at the same time that she was French, Eric Yorkie was in that class.

'Just do it.' I thought. 'Ask her if it's alright and go see if it can be done.'

"Edward!" She threw herself into my arms as we met at the math building. I chuckled and kissed her lightly.

"Miss me?"

"Of course." She grabbed my hand and started to walk towards the cafeteria. Most of the student body didn't stare anymore, either they got used to me and Bella being together or they realized that staring was rude.

We met Jazz and Alice outside of the brick building and they led us inside and to the food line. I scrunched my nose up at the selection of foods, if possible they got worse today then usual.

"What about food?" I asked as Bella kept walking from the line and towards our table.

"Your mum left early today, so I made you something. You're always saying how horrible this stuff tastes so I figured, how bad can I screw up a sandwhich?"

"Thankyou," I whispered, knowing that she would hear me, and wrapping my arm round her waist – pulling her closer to me and placing a kiss on her cheek.

"Anytime." We took our usual seats facing away from the crowd and she pulled out the tupperware container from her bag. "This is yours just so that you know." She smirked up at me. She placed it in front of me and I pulled up the lid, ignoring Emmett's remarks about Bella stealing my mothers plastic good, and saw the chicken, lettuce, cheese and mayo sandwhich that she had made. Without wasting anytime, I picked it up and started to eat, smiling at the taste. This beat shitty cafeteria food any day.

"Did I do it right?" She asked from next to me, her gold eyes staring up at me with worry.

"It's perfect love. I mean, how can you screw up a sandwhich?" I threw her earlier words back at her, enjoying how her eyes melted into humor at my words.

"Good, see I can still cook!" She threw at Emmett.

"You put stuff on bread, that doesn't count as cooking Bella. Anybody can do that."

"But it might not taste the same."

"It does smell better then most of this repulsive stuff." Rosalie chimed in, stabbing at her chicken patty with a plastic fork. I almost chocked. Rosalie was talking near me?

"Does food really smell that bad?" I already knew, but I wanted to see if she would talk again.

"Absolutely horrible, like something died." She nodded, not making eye contact but alas! The blonde speaks!

"Well that's going to suck." I mumbled. She glared at me than, and I cowardly resumed eating my sandwhich, not wanting to met her eye and wince away.

"You still want to do this?" She asked coldly. I threw her a questioning glance. "This," she gestured to herself, Bella and Emmett. "this half life. You still want to be like us?"

"More then ever, what's wrong with that?"

"Because you have a choice! Nobody would choose that!"

"I would, it's what I want" I refused to let her get me worked up. Bella put her hand on my thigh, rubbing soothing circles with her thumb. Her stance was rigid though, and she was glaring at her sister.

"You don't know what you're asking for."

"That's why he's gong to talk to everybody first – before I agree to change him." Bella growled.

"You're going to change him? Not Carlisle?" Emmett asked, eyes wide.

"I don't know yet, but I think that I can handle the taste. And it's not like I'll be alone, somebody will be there if I needed to be stopped. Assuming that you're alright with that?" She looked up at me now, and I smiled at her, nodding. I hadn't been aware that she wanted to change me. She had explained to me the siren call of my blood to her, and ever since I had expected some else to bite me.

"That's exactly what I wanted, but are you sure?" She only nodded in response, looking back at Rosalie, who was fuming.

"What?" I questioned. Emmett started to shake his head at me but I barely noticed, for Rosalie's eyes, which were a light gold this morning had turned black as the night.

"What are you thinking!?" She hissed at me, her voice almost a whisper. "This isn't a life that you should choose for yourself. You can talk to however you want but you won't really know what this life is like until you've tried it yourself. But by that time, it will be too late for you!"

"I can handle the bad parts as long as I get the good parts as well. Doesn't having Emmett in you life make everything bearable?"

She paused for a moment, nodding slowly. "Yes, he makes this existence worth living, but I would do anything to be human again. Think about what you've got before you throw everything away child!" She hissed that last part before pushing away from the lunch table and storming from the cafeteria. Emmett got up and followed her, after throwing me a glace that clearly said 'sorry'.

"Wow, not even I saw that." Alice said. I jumped, not realizing that her and Jasper had joined us yet. They were staring after their siblings, Alice's head was tilted to the side and for some reason she had the plastic spoon from her fruit cup in her mouth. Jasper shrugged before looking back at his food, spreading the 'special ravioli' around the box.

"Sorry." I muttered. Jasper snorted, Alice rolled her eyes and Bella shook her head.

"You didn't do anything wrong Edward. That – " She gestured to the doorway. "is Rosalie." Bella finished smiling. "I am sorry though, if anything that she said upset you."

"Oh, I'm fine."

"Do you still want to ask about the next three days?"

"Which will be sunny! Which means……..camping!" Alice started with a bright voice but faulted just before she said camping.

"And baseball tomorrow night, don't forget about the baseball." Jasper reminded her, putting the fork with the box and leaning back. He winked at me. "I have got a wicked curve ball."

"What do you need to ask about though?"

"I want to skip with you guys, but we need to know if my mum will let me go 'camping' or if we will need to call up every morning and pretend to be her, saying that I am sick or something."

"Hmmmm." She nodded. "Just let me see." Her eyes glazed over for a few seconds before they returned to focus. "Everything's fifty fifty right now, but there has to be something that we can do to change that."

"Well what if we got Jasper to go and push persuasion of something at her, if that's alright with you of course." I nodded at him, and he smiled back.

"Of course."

"Great."

Alice's eyes glazed over again, and this time she returned to us with a bright smile on her face

"Yer that works!"

"And you are sure that nothing bad will happen at the baseball game right?" Bella asked and Jasper straightened up.

"I don't see anything bad happening. I think that they are leaving now." Alice nodded at her.

"Alright, great. So we'll go to yours after school, I'll run you back to my place, you can have food and talk to the others and then Carlisle can drop you off at your place and then tell your mother about the camping trip. Jasper do you want to stay outside or do you want to come in?"

"I'll come in with you guys, I'd like to meet your mother." I didn't know why he would want to meet my mother but whatever worked for him.

"How will Rosalie react to me staying over?"

"She probably won't be happy, but what can she do?" Bella shrugged.

"She'll go hunting for most of the time." Alice shrugged too, and Jasper rolled his eyes.

"She's always so moody. Seriously being a vampire isn't that bad, just coz she wants kids and wants to get old and die. Pfft, over rated." Jasper was looking at the window.

"Do you like being a vampire?" I asked him.

"Sure, this lifestyle has perks. I get my family and my wife. But the thirst is my only real problem. I know all too well what human blood tastes like, even if the….thrill….was dulled by the emotions of fear and what not by my meal. The thirst hurts but the others try to make it better for me, my control is much better now."

"Have you ever slipped up?"

"Just a few times in the earlier days, all before the whole Emmett-singer thing happened." I nodded, thinking over his words. I finished the Bella sandwhich and a bottle of water that she had thought to bring for me.

Our biology two teacher was away today so we had a substitute. He obviously had no idea about any kind of science and gave us a worksheet to complete, not offering to help anybody and just asking the question on the sheet and telling us to look through our books if somebody asked a question. Bella and I finished quickly enough, and enjoyed being able to talk about nothing for the next forty minutes. Of course, some of the things that we talked about were important.

"So do you know who will talk to me tonight?" I asked her whilst the substitute teacher tried to make himself sound smarter by turning Mike Newton's questions around on him. Newton was such an idiot that I think that that tactic was working.

"I was thinking about Emmett, but maybe Jasper. He was pretty clear about everything at lunch today so I'll ask him later."

"I don't want to be any trouble." I muttered.

"But you're not, I've already asked all of the others if they are alright to do this, and they all said yer. Even Rose."

"Rosalie?"

"She wants to warn you. She might not tell you about her human past but she will probably tell you all of the things that she doesn't like. Granted, that probably is a good thing – for somebody who doesn't want this life to tell you about everything, as apposed to all the people that want you changed and enjoy this life."

"Well Alice was pretty honest about everything, that she sometimes felt lonely and whatever."

"That's true. " She nodded.

"You still won't change my mind." I told her.

"I know." She sighed. "But I want you to be as prepared as possible."

"Rosalie's right." She said after a moment. I looked at her, stunned and confused. Did she not want me to be changed? "There isn't any going back after this. You really do need to be 100 percent sure about all of this."

"I know love."

"Edward…….."

"I'm sure about you. I know that there are bad bits to this life, but I will have you right?"

"Of course."

"Than as long as you're there I can handle all of the shit parts." She laughed at me lightly.

"I love you."

"And I love you too." I kissed her lightly, giving the finger to the kid that wolf whistled.

/*&*/

Rosalie was already sitting in the car when we walked up to the car.

"I'll be more than willing to speak to you tonight Edward." Jasper nodded at me after we were standing next to him.

"Thankyou." I let him feel my gratitude, and he smiled at me.

"We'll see you later back at the house." He nodded again and opened the door for Alice and letting her in before closing the door and walking around to the other side. Emmett waved at us before sitting in the passenger seat and the car pulled from the car park. I opened the door for Bella and than went to my side so that I could drive us home. The drive was only short and filled with a comfortable silence. As soon as we got from the car she turned around and looked over her shoulder at me.

I pouted at her. "You know I can't wait till I can carry you and run at a vampire speed." She just laughed. I climbed onto her back and after she had secured me to her, she took off at a sprint but still not going at her top speed. She never did if I was there. The run to her house took almost as long as the drive home and before I had time to get used to the feeling of my body pressed against her we were at her house.

"Hello!" Esme greeted each of us with a hug just as we stepped over the threshold.

"Hi mum." Bella kissed her cheek.

"Good afternoon Esme." I hugged her back, noting her smell. She smelled like sugar and cookies and flowers, but not overpowering.

"Is there anything particular that you would like for tea?" She asked me sweetly.

"I don't want you to go to any trouble. I can just make toast or something."

"Edward I'm the mother of five teenage vampires. I never get to fuss over them too much and I never get to cook for them. Let me fuss." She smiled at me, still being sweet.

"Alright then." I blushed slightly.

"So no preferences?"

"No, whatever you feel like making will be great, it always is." I smiled up at her and she positively glowed.

"Aren't you sweet." She bounced a bit and than walked of to the kitchen, a little bounce in her lithe step.

I smiled after her, enjoying how even the little things that I could do made her so extremely happy.

"Come on, let's go up to my room." Bella tugged on my hand. I took her up the stairs and sat on her bed. She sat next to me, kicking off her shoes and crossing her jean covered legs, sitting ' Indian style ' . "Homework first, talk later?"

"Yer, I've only got like, two trigonometry questions to do anyways." I shrugged, grabbing my bag ( that was lighter then usual thanks to most of my teachers surprising me with no homework – that meant no textbooks. ) And kicking off my shoes, lifting my legs up onto the bed and turning to face her, mimicking her position. "What are you staring at?" I asked her, cocking my head to the side. She seemed to snap out of her trance because she shot her eyes up to mine and said –

"Hmmmm?"

"Nothing." I smirked at her.

"Hey guys." Jasper said as he opened the door, little Alice trailing after him. They were each carrying their bags, obviously they were hoping to join us.

"Much homework?" Alice asked.

"Nope."

"Not really."

"Lucky friggin juniors. I have two essays to write." Jasper muttered.

"But you have three days off, and vampires can do their work really fast. You probably already know all of the information anyways." I pointed out to him.

"Yer but that aint the point kid. I can't stand doing assignments. The english one is on some shitty book that I don't even want to read and the history one – I already know everything about the subject, I was alive! And I can't even say some parts of what really happened, because the stupid human history records don't know that stuff!" He seemed really worked up.

"What are you studying?" Bella asked him, looking at her own Trigonometry homework.

"World Was Two – supposedly we're studying this in detail. Bull shit."

"You really don't like the human history classes do you?" I asked. He shook his head.

"He wasn't always like this."

"Bella don't." He growled.

"It happened in the sixties."

"Alice seriously!" Jasper whipped around to look at his beaming wife. She took a few steps forward and then jumped up onto the bed.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Do we really have to do this?"

"Yes." The three of us replied.

"We were studying the civil war, which always got him worked up, but this time he decided that he would put some more information into his essay." Bella started.

"He put in all of this stuff that the human history books never knew about, but that obviously happened." Alice continued.

"He put so much effort into the project," Bella kept on going. " making sure that he didn't give away too much but still made sure to be informative. He went like, four thousand words over what that approximate recommendation was – "

"Which would have gotten anyone else extra points." Jasper insisted.

"But the teacher yelled at him for making up so much false information. The whole thing was so funny. We were all in the history class, it was a composite class with Juniors and Seniors together, this assessment was huge for the final grade."

"And the teacher, Mrs. Hennings I think that her name was, she yelled at him in front of the whole class about telling the truth and not making up false facts. She even gave him detention for a week and got Esme and Carlisle to come up to the school. They raced up expecting that something bad had happened, only to meet the rest of us giggling in the hallway and pointing them to the classroom." Alice said, breaking off into giggles at the mere memory.

"She made him join the creative writing team from the english club, he had to do that for the next term and ended up failing history. After that assignment there was only one term left till he graduated. Jas got a d+ or something like that." Bella started to laugh too now, and I joined her.

"She held a grudge against me! Everything else I did for that year I failed, even if I only wrote from the text book!" Jasper exclaimed, throwing his lanky arms up in the air.

"You should have just done that in the first place." Alice giggled.

"Well I do that now don't I."

"Has anybody else ever failed a class?" I asked them.

"All of us have every now and then – whether because we didn't try, lost a bet or something else ridiculous." Alice answered.

"There was this one time, also in the sixties – where it was mandatory for all females to do classes like home economics. Every woman had to know how to be a good wife, ya know? I think that the year was 65' and It was our second school for that decade. Rosalie was pissed that she had to do the class, every school that she had ever been to made them do that stuff." Jasper started.

"Granted, by the sixties things were better. We could do some decent classes and at least we could go to school at all." Bella shrugged.

"Anyways, senior year Rosalie decided that she wasn't going to do that shit anymore and didn't do any of the work. She failed the class and Esme and Carlisle got called back up to the school because the strict, old fashioned headmistress was 'scared for Rosalie's future as a woman' or something like that. Rosalie was so angry that whole time, she had to take 'lady lessons' or something like that didn't she?" Jas looked back at the girls that were sitting together on the bed.

"Yer, with the headmistress or she wouldn't be allowed to graduate. " Alice said.

"She only put forth a little bit of effort but she was allowed to graduate." Bella finished, it was like they had this whole conversation choreographed. I snorted at the idea of a Rosalie, dressed up like a sixties teenage, taking 'lady lessons' from a stern old woman.

"I can't imagine you guys dressed up like people from those times – especially you Jazz." I smirked. "Tie die wouldn't be your thing."

"He looked quite good wearing tie die actually." I whipped my head round to Alice, mouth agape.

"What!?!?"

**So this chapter is a little bit shorter, but still long. Thankyou for all of the people that are reviewing and pming me, ttyyyytt, Blue eyed halk and black eyes halk. Give my other story 'A Second Chance' a read, you might just like that one too.  
**


	8. Chapter 8 Camping, Thunder and Diamonds

Previously - "He looked quite good wearing tie die actually." I whipped my head round to Alice, mouth agape.

"What!?!?" 

"But he refused to wear – "

"Alice I let you dress me however you want, but I refuse –"

"But you looked so good – "

"Not this again!" Bella yelled. "I left this conversation behind forty years ago, I won't hear this again! Pease!"

They both grumbled their apologies.

"So you didn't wear tie die?" I asked Jasper.

"Only a few times. We all had to try to blend in a bit, but that was difficult. Alice and Rosalie had a ball most of the time – and so did Emmett even if he won't admit to that, but all the rest of us had a bit of a hard time with all of the crazy fashions."

"The eighties weren't so bad though. Some of the seventies was alright." Bella said.

"That just because you like the punk – mod look, though that time was fun. Most of the nineties were annoying though. I mean, overalls and half sweaters? Seriously girls?" Alice shook her head sadly, her little black spikes shaking round her head.

"Now isn't to bad though. Jeans and shirts with guys can work, and you can wear them everyday." Jasper nodded in satisfaction.

"I don't miss having to wear dresses and corsets everyday." Bella mused, looking up at the ceiling.

"You still like that stuff though." Alice said.

"On occasion." Bella allowed. "I had this one dress, it was absolutely beautiful. Not to fancy, but not to casual. It was blue and white and I loved it so much. I kept it in the safe in my dresser most of the time."

"Do you know what happened to any of your stuff?" I asked her.

"Carlisle and I went and got some of my things, but the bigger things like the furniture and stuff like that had to stay there. We had no more family and I was thought to be dead, so then that house was sold. I assume that the furniture was also sold." She shrugged.

"Wouldn't it be ironic – but cool – if we found something that belonged to one of us in like, an antique store or something like that." Alice giggled.

"Have you ever looked?" I asked them.

"We've all looked at stores but not really expected to find anything. I actually found the crib that Esme had built for her son after the change. I was back at Ashland for a few days, just packing up something and I saw E.E.P carved into the side. We ended up getting it, I think that it's actually up in the attic." Bella shrugged, gesturing up towards the ceiling.

"E.E.P?" I asked them, stupidly not considering the fact that she would have had another name than Cullen.

"Esme Evingston Platt. That was her name after she married."

"She was married!?"

"Of course. It was the nineteen twenties and she was twenty six, every respectable woman of that age was married."

"Right, sorry, it's just weird to think of her with anybody but Carlisle."

"That's true, I still have a hard time picturing that." Bella said, with Jasper and Alice nodding along silently.

Then I rethought her words. "Wait, her son?"

The others looked at each other, as if trying to decide what to say.

"She had a son, but that's really personal information to her. We should probably wait until she tells you." Alice said.

"That's alright." I nodded, understanding completely. It wasn't my place to demand that they tell my their mothers story.

We did our homework and assignments silently, but chatted while Jasper finished his history assignment. After an hour or so, he was done. I was definitely looking forward to being a vampire.

"So," He said after he closed his book. "Bella tells me that you want to know my story?"

"If you wouldn't mind." He nodded.

"Alright," He took a steadying breath. "I was born in 1847, in Huston Texas. I was from a big family, the oldest of five. When the civil war broke out, me and my three brothers all wanted to defend the south, but whilst our dad supported our wants, our mother was against the thought of her boys fighting. I was almost seventeen when I enlisted, but I lied to them about my age and claimed twenty – I was tall enough to get away with that." He paused again, considering what to say next, possibly remembering. "Of course, you already know about my military life from your history class, but I will go over some of the finer details. People always seemed to like me, they always agreed with my suggestions and I quickly moved up the ranks. By the battle of Galveston I was the youngest Major in Texas – that's not including my real age. You know that I died on the way back to Galveston, but you obviously don't know what really happened.

"I was racing back to the city, when I met three women. They were walking and I stopped to offer them my assistance. The fair-haired one leaned closer to me and inhaled. 'Mmm – lovely.' She spoke. The other one, she was even blonder still, she pulled the first one back. I realized again just how beautiful they were, but my instincts were screaming at me – they were telling me to go, to run. But I was trained not to fear women, but to protect them.

"'Careful Nettie, I like this one." The little brunette girl cautioned one of them.

"You think that he is special Maria?" The first girl, the one that smelled me said. Maria started to speak to her, but to softly for me to hear.

"Well than you should be the one to change him Maria, me and Lucy will go to hunt." The first girl, Nettie told her.

"Yes, I kill them more then I change them, we can go hunt." That Lucy girl grabbed Nettie's hand and tugged. I was shocked, they seemed so serious about killing. I wanted to leave them all alone, but my manners kept me there. Maria nodded to the other two and they turned and ran off. They glided away, looking like they were flying. Their white dresses flew behind them and I was awestruck. Maria snapped her fingers in front of my face and I turned my attention to her.

"What is your name soldier?" She asked me, battering her long eyelashes at me.

"Major Jasper Whitlock ma'am." I told her with pride.

"Well then Jasper, I truly do hope that you survive." Then she attacked. Before I knew what was happening she was at my neck and drinking from me. She pulled away and nodded to herself in satisfaction and I started to fall from the pain. She picked me up and ran with me, and I still remember that I thought that she had somehow turned into an angel or something like that, that she was taking me to Heaven. But then the pain started to get worse and that was all that I could think about. I don't know how I reacted but the next thing that I know I'm awake. I was so thirsty that before she could tell me anything I ran from the hut and killed three people. When of them was a little girl and I was horrified. Maria told me that I had done well, that I hadn't made a mess. She explained everything and I attacked her, horrified at what she had made me. Eventually the others there got to me to restrain me.

"What you need to get is why I was changed. Sometime ago, a vampire came up with the idea that if he and his coven were the only ones in a big area, then they could feed as often as they wanted and they wouldn't get caught. Eventually other people got that same idea, and of course everybody wanted a big territory for their coven. There were wars and fights, but people were always coming up with new ideas, new ways to win the battles and than to win the land, the most food. Eventually, this one vampire came up with a fool proof idea." He paused again.

I waited a few moments, absorbing all of this new information. Vampire wars? And then with this Maria woman leading him, I get the intense feeling that Jaspers 'upbringing' wasn't exactly like the rest of the families. I waited a few more minutes, before pushing him.

"Well, what was his idea?" I could feel Bella's eyes on me, watching me absorb all of this new information.

"His name was Benito and he came up with the idea of vampire armies – the new born armies. "

"The new born armies?" He nodded.

"Yer, he changed a lot of humans and took them to the city that he wanted. They attacked the two covens that shared that area, and they won. New born vampires are very strong. If given the chance they can easily crush an older vampire. But they usually aren't very skilled fighters, so they are beatable. When the other covens got wind of what Benito was doing, after he got another four or so territories, they made their own armies. There was constant fighting during the nights, vampires trying to gain more land. During the day there was complete planning, that was all that we did. Either planning our attacks or the attacks that would be made on us. By the time that I was changed, the Volturi had already intervened once. You know about the Volturi right?" I nodded. "Right, so the armies had gotten to big, too many humans were getting changed and then being fed off.

"Your histories actually say that a sickness plagued the cities – that that was the cause of the drop of the population."

"Wow."

"Yer. I was a member of the second wave. The Volturi had killed almost everybody from the first waves, there are few survivors and witnesses, but I have spoken to one man and his mate who saw the elimination of an army from a distance. The things that they saw – they are unspeakable. The Volturi members, some of them have no conscience, they get joy from killing not only humans but always the other vampires.

"During the second wave, people were being smarter about everything, they were making sure that they didn't create too many vampires at a time, and that they had some level of control over them before making more. If somebody got out of control, then the Volturi would step in again.

"Maria wanted a stronger army. There were a lot of vendettas this time round and Maria wanted her home town back. She only changed the men, she wanted soldiers. She picked us specially, if she thought that we would be strong or good fighters or have a special gift. We all fought against each other and I was one of the best – I was fast, quicker and better at combat. Maria was upset about having to replace everyone that I killed but she rewarded me greatly, which just made me stronger."

"Rewarded you how?" I asked him, thinking that I already know that answer.

"She would get us extra food, extra humans to feed from. So eventually she put me in charge of everybody, sort of like a promotion. When I said that we were ready for battle, we got her hometown back. But that made her greedy, we fought for more and more area's, and almost always won. After eighteen months, I was the only member of the original troops left. Eventually Lucy and Nettie turned on us, but we killed them too.

"There was one newborn, Peter, he hated the life that we lived. But Maria had told us that this was just the way that life was for our kind, and we all believed her. There was this one newborn, Charlotte, and they became quite close – I just didn't realize how close. Emotions like lust and love were foreign to me, I didn't know what I was getting. We were executing some of the older newborns, and when Charlotte got called he screamed at her to run away, that this was just a trick. He ran after her and than they left together. I could have caught up with them, but he was a good man and if I caught him then I would have to kill him. Five years later he snuck back, he came to get me. With one conversation, he had me convinced to leave this life behind and go to the north with them.

"He couldn't have picked a better time either. My depression was getting worse and worse, and Maria didn't understand what was wrong with me. She knew that I could control the newborns emotions, but she didn't know that I could feel them as my own. I could feel the thirst and aggression from everyone, and whenever I went to eat, I could feel the pain and fear of my victim. Maria didn't like my growing aversions to hunting and fighting and training the others. I think that she was planning on destroying me, even if she didn't want to – for tactical reasons.

"So I ran away with Peter and Charlotte and we traveled together for years. I got much better, but still, there was the depression. I felt like I was looking for something but I didn't know what. I stayed with them for 8 years, and left them in 1935 to travel on mine own. The depression didn't get better, and I avoided feeding as much as possible. But I couldn't avoid that could I, and at the time I didn't know that there was any other way – to drink from animal's just doesn't cross most vampires minds – including mine. I couldn't stand the life that I had been dealt but what else could I do?

"On August the 18th, 1952, I was wondering round Philadelphia when I felt drawn to this Dinner. When I walked in I felt the strongest emotions that I ever had." He reached over and grabbed Alice's hand. "Then I saw her and got shocked when the emotions that she was feeling became my own – not like when I was just feeling her, but I actually felt them. At first I didn't realize what we were feeling, but then she came up to me and said –

"You kept me waiting a long time."

"And I ducked my head and said "I'm sorry ma'am." And than I took her hand and I felt hope. Then I realized that I was feeling love, and we never looked back."

He kissed her soundly, and I looked towards the window to give them their privacy.

"So," He started up again. "We then set off to find the Cullens, after we got to know each other that is. She had me hooked on everything and I agreed to follow her and to trust her.

"But changing to the animal diet was harder for me then the others. With the amount of time that I had feasted on human blood, animal blood pales in comparison and you don't get nearly the rush – mind you I never really got that particular rush. You don't feel as strong with the animal blood and the thirst is never really gone.

"This life is full of repetition, thirst, hunting, school than moving. Over and over again. But having a family and a mate, well that make's everything worth it. I would love to be a human with Alice, but that can't happen. I'm happy like this, and if Alice says that you will like this life, than I still trust her, so than you will. Plus, we will all be here to help you along. Even if you slip up a few times, nobody will hold that against you. They all moved for me and Emmett whenever we need to, if we ever slipped up. Rosalie acted to vampireish when we lived in Toronto one time, so than we left. We've moved for everybody, so we can leave for you too." He finished with a nod.

"Thankyou." I smiled at him, and he grinned back.

"We should play poker." Bella chirped suddenly. I threw her a questioning glance, and she shrugged. "I am a poker junkie, and what?" I laughed at her, as Jasper flashed from the room and back again in moments, holding a pack of playing cards and a little metal case that I presumed had the chips.

"Texas hold em'."

We spent the next two or so hours playing poker. I called my mother and told her that I would be later home, and she said that that was fine. We, or I, was having dinner, using the coffee table to put the plate with the creamy chicken dish on it. They were telling me stories about their past adventures, including the times that they got arrested. For the life of me I still couldn't comprehend why Emmett would feel the need to break and enter a food store, specializing, ironically, in dairy products. I almost chocked on the piece of chicken that I was eating when they told me that story.

"Ohh, I think that I hear Carlisle." Esme jumped up, walked towards the door that lead to the garage.

"Is he here?" I looked up towards Bella. It was getting close to eight and I needed to get home soon. Plus we needed to explain everything to him. Esme had said that it was fine for me to stay but I was still going to ask him anyways. She nodded at me. A few moments later Esme walked through the door way again with Carlisle's arm wrapped round her waist.

"Hey guys." He looked up from his wife to smile gently at us. We all returned the greetings

"How was the hospital?" Bella asked.

"Fine, Jessica Stanley's dad fell off the roof at the Newton store. When she's spreading his life altering story round the school tomorrow, don't be surprised." He rolled his eyes Carlisle new about Jessica and her gossiping tendencies, as both Lauren and Tyler's mothers worked as nurse's at the hospital, Lauren's mother was just as bad and was always using the hospital phone to call Jessica's mother. Plus Rosalie bitched to no end about 'the irritating humans at her school'.

Bella snorted.

"Pfft, don't be so nice Carlisle, you and I both know that Jessica doesn't know big words like that. The word 'alter' isn't in her vocabulary." Alice teased lightly. Carlisle rolled his eyes in response but didn't say anything else.

"So Edward's going to skip school with us for the next three said to go 'camping'. He's going to stay the night – "

"If that's alright with you and Esme." I interjected.

"I already told you that that's fine." Esme told me as she ran her fingers through my hair whilst she walked past the table that I was sitting next to to get to the arm chair.

"Of course Edward, you know that you're welcome here any time." Carlisle smiled at me as he walked over to Esme and sat her on his lap.

"But we still need to ask his mother, we were wondering if you could take us back to his house and tell her about what we will be doing, or what we're meant to be doing at east. Jasper has to come to so that he can convince her." Bella said.

"That's fine. Will she say yes?" Carlisle replied, looking at his newest daughter.

"If Jasper goes than yer, everything will be great. The baseball game will go smoothly but I still can't see who wins."

"If you saw who won, that would take away the fun." Rosalie retorted.

"Whatever blondie."

"Your husband's blonde."

"I said whatever." I had to smirk at their banter, at the off hand way that Alice sometimes spoke to Rosalie.

"We should actually go now," Bella spoke up. "It's just past eight."

"I'm coming too!" Alice cried.

"Why?" Bella laughed.

"Because I want to meet Mrs. Mason, she's going to like me."

"Oh really?" Bella crossed her arms and raised and eyebrow in mock sternness.

Alice nodded enthusiastically.

"Well she practically has a crush on Bella so she'll probably love you too." I told Alice. The two girls laughed.

"Edward's got competition." Emmett sang.

"Hey!"

I stood up, as did Bella, Jasper, Alice, Esme and Carlisle. I picked up the plate but Esme took the china from my hands and danced to the kitchen.

"Thankyou Esme, it was delicious." I gave her a hug when she got back and got my bag from the floor.

"Good night dear." She said back before walked up the grand staircase to her office, with Rosalie following her talking about the new aspects of Alice's closet, which they were just finishing off.

The remaining of us piled up into Carlisle's car. Carlisle drove slower than the others, if only just slower, but always went even slower when I was with him. He always made everybody put their seatbelts on – indestructible or not. I guess that he had seen to many injuries from car accidents. Even though he logically knew that his family would never get hut by something as mundane as a swerving car, those images stuck with him.

Jasper started to hum along to one of the songs on the radio and I threw him a questioning glance.

"You're not really humming to Brittany Spears are you?" I questioned him , hoping that he was actually humming to something in his head.

"Yes." He replied, no shame on his pallid face.

"Why?" I gasped, was this really the vampire soldier that I had been speaking too ten minutes ago?

"Alice." All three of them replied monotonously in unison, but Alice giggled.

"What about her?"

"She plays all of this catchy shit in our room all of the time – gets stuck in my head." Jasper shook his head, incredulous. "I've become house kept."

"Aww, like a little pussy cat." Bella leaned forward a ruffled his hair.

"Shut up Swan." He didn't even bother pushing her hand away. She huffed and sat back in her seat, not liking being called her old name. She muttered something under her breath, which made the two men in the front seat chuckle. She scowled.

A little later than usual, we pulled up at my house. The living room light was on and I could see the flashing colours of the T.V. We all went up the stairs and I opened the door, stepping over the threshold and than opening the door for them to walk trough, whilst calling to my mother. She walked past the couch but stopped when she saw the crowd at the front door.

"Oh hello!" She smiled at my Bella, Carlisle, Alice and Jasper, even if confusion clouded her eyes when she looked at the last member of our party.

"Hello Ma'am, I'm Jasper, Bella's older brother." He stepped forward to shake her hand. He had a slight smile on his face but wasn't showing any of his razor sharp white teeth.

"Hello dear, it's so nice to finally meet you." She shook his hand.

"And I'm Alice! Bella's favorite sister!" Alice bounded up and hugged my mother, who looked a little shocked at the exuberance displayed by the little pixie.

"Hello Alice." She laughed lightly at the beaming little girl.

"We were wondering if we could talk to you about Edward for a few minutes." Carlisle said as Jasper stepped back. He quickly explained further when my mother looked at him, frantic, obviously expecting something bad. "Oh, don't worry nothings wrong, we just wanted to know if he would like to join us for a small trip." She nodded her head, not really covering up her surprise.

"Would you like anything to drink or eat?" She asked as she walked back to the living room.

"No thankyou." Carlisle said as the other two shook their heads.

"So what is this trip?" She gestured for the others to sit, and she took a seat on the couch. Bella and I sat next to her, Jasper on the loveseat with Alice sitting next to him and Carlisle on the arm chair.

"We're just going camping for a few days, but we're leaving tomorrow. He'd miss the next three days or school and we would be back some time on Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather."

"Oh."

"As a rare event, it will be sunny for the next three or four days. My family and I enjoy hiking whenever we get the chance and this proves to be the perfect opportunity." I could feel the persuasion coming off of Jasper and found myself nodding along, before I caught myself and stopped, straightening up.

"Where could you be going?" I could see her starting to warm up to the idea.

"The Goat Rocks wilderness." She looked confused. "It's not to far from here, just a couple of hours."

"And you're sure that you're alright to have him?" She said after a pause.

"Of course! Edward is always welcome with us."

She turned to me. "You'll catch up on your homework?"

"Of course."

"The teachers are really good about it, they give us the notes that we missed and everything." Bella nodded at my mother.

She bit her lip, a habit that she had picked up from Bella; I told you that my mother loved spending time with her. "Alright you can go, but be good and do whatever Carlisle tells you." She pointed at me, and I nodded. I could hear Jasper snort lightly but doubted that my mother could.

"What time does he need to be at your house?" She asked Carlisle.

"We can pick him up about eight, if that's easier." He shrugged. I wondered why so early but figured that the sun would come out shortly after that.

"Alright then." She nodded again and Carlisle smiled, standing up.

"Well we should get going, we need to get some good sleep and I have to help the wife finish packing."

We all said goodbye and my mother talked to Carlisle as I walked with Jasper and Bella to the car.

"What's she asking?"

"If we're sleeping in the same tent." Bella responded, smirking slightly.

"Ahh the irony." I laughed. Alice giggled. "Will you stay tonight?" I asked quickly as Carlisle walked back to the car. She nodded.

"I'll run back after we get around the corner."

"I'll see you tomorrow." I said a bit louder for my mothers benefit, kissing Bella's cheek.

"Tomorrow." She nodded. She waved at my mother, who waved back and then they drove away.

"You'll be sure to stay safe right?" She asked worriedly.

"Of course mum, you know that Dr. Cullen won't let me get hurt." I assured her.

"Oh I got a letter from your aunt Caroline today." Mother said as she started to walk back to the kitchen. I heard a light thump from my room and wondered what was wrong, Bella never made anyway noise.

"Oh really, is she well?" I asked, edging towards the stairs.

"Yes, she wants to plan a get together in a few months time, after she gets back. I need to find that file that I kept her itinerary in."

"Alright, cool. I'm going to go upstairs and try to get some sleep, big day tomorrow." She nodded her acceptance and I made my way upstairs. Bella was on her back, her leg stuck in the arm hole of the shirt that I had thrown over the hook next to the window, the one that usually held the curtains back. I rushed over to her, that irrational panic flooding through my body.

"Bella!" I said too loudly but my mother probably didn't hear. She would just assume that I was talking on the phone. "Are you alright?!"

She started to laugh, hiding the sound with her palm. "How did I manage to do that!" She laughed more. "I'm fine Edward, just…." She started to laugh more. "I told you that I was clumsy!" She started to giggle wildly and I sighed in relief. I stood up to untangle her from the shirt and then helped her to stand up. She dusted herself off and looked up at me. "Oops." She said, starting to giggle all over again.

"Did you go hunting and drink from a squirrel on crack or something?" I asked her as I stretched on my bed, putting my hands behind my head.

"No, I just haven't tripped that badly in a while. Just funny is all." She came over and curled up next to me after kicking off her shoes. I wrapped one of my arms around her, holding her tighter to me, unwilling to let go of her again.

"So where will we go for the baseball game?"

"There's a clearing a few miles away from the house. There aren't any trails round there so the area is usually free from the humans, except you." She grinned up at me.

I laughed. "Except for me."

I got up then to go and have a shower, rushing through the routine so that I could get back to her. We spent the rest of the night mostly in a comfortable silence, kissing lightly and touching innocently.

"Happy anniversary Bella." I muttered into her neck.

"Happy anniversary Edward." She whispered into my hair, kissing it again.

"I love you." I whispered as I let sleep consume me. I briefly heard her whispered,

"I love you more." Before I was swept away by the dreams.

/*&*/

"Edward, come on wake up or you'll be late for the Cullen's." Somebody was shaking my shoulder.

"Edward," I reached round the bed looking for Bella, but I couldn't find her. I started to panic.

"Edward now!" The voice that I now recognized as my mothers broke through my consciences.

"Where's Bella?" I asked, opening my eyes and looking round the room for her, not yet awake enough to realize that my mother had no idea, and couldn't know, that Bella and I spent practically night together, only a few feet away from where she herself slept.

"Bella's not there yet sweetheart, but she will be waiting for you if you don't get up now!"

"Right." I pushed back the covers and marveled at the not-so-coldness of the day, the weather wasn't hot or humid, not at all, but there was no mist or fog on my window and I didn't have goose bumps.

"Get up, breakfast is almost ready." And with that she turned and walked from my room. I moaned and rolled over, still smelling Bella's scent on the pillow and knowing that she couldn't be far. I shoved my hand under the pillow, attempting to get the fabric closer to my face, when my hand met with something that felt like paper.

I pulled the paper from under the fabric and rubbed my eyes with my spare fist.

Edward, so sorry but Alice came and got me, or else your mother would have seen me – don't ask me how that would of happened, I have no idea. I'll be back at eight to pick you up.

Love Bella.

I grinned at the paper and shoved it in my bedside table draw, where all of her notes where. My mother never looked in there, I think that she thought that I had porn there or something but whatever. I grabbed my clothes for a shower, not hurrying because it was only seven twenty-eight. When I got back to my room I packed the clothes that I would need for the next few days, a book, my IPod, phone and both charges, just incase. I went to the kitchen to find my mother eating eggs and bacon at the table with a spare plate next to her.

"Good morning." I said cheerfully.

"Morning, you'll need to hurry, you only have ten minutes."

I nodded again a dug in, eating as fast as I could without choking. At exactly eight, there was a light knock on the door and I started to do the dishes. My mother went to open the door and I heard her greet Bella and Carlisle. They walked up the hallway and joined me at the kitchen.

"Hey!" Bella said as she came up and stood next to me.

"Good morning." I said as I leaned over to give her a light kiss. "Morning Carlisle." I said to him as I turned my head around.

"Good too see you Edward." He nodded at me. They adults made small talk about where we were going and swapt phone numbers, whilst Bella dried the dishes for me.

I hugged my mother goodbye, feeling bad about the way that she clung to me just before I left.

"Love you mum, I'll be fine."

"I know dear, love you too." She let go of me and let me walk to the car. I slid in next to Bella and grabbed her hand. The two of them looked at me, maybe expecting me to say something as Carlisle started up the car and pulled away from the house.

"So, camping?" I asked after a pause, causing the two of them to break the unusual tension by cracking up laughing. I grinned at the sight, seeing Bella cover her mouth with her spare hands and Carlisle shake so hard that if he were human he wouldn't of been able to drive. We made small talk until we reached their house, Carlisle pulling up in the garage just before he hit the wall. It was only then that I realized the partially opened cupboard in front of his car, and a box with a sticker proclaiming that it was a tent on it.

"Umm, guys?"

"Yes?" They said together.

"Why do you have a tent?"

Bella giggled. "We have many tents, and sleeping bags."

"And any other things that you could come up with when you think about camping." Carlisle finished.

I threw them a questioning glance.

"People just might get suspicious if we keep on going hiking and camping but we never buy the supplies."

"Oh well that makes sense." We walked through the garage door, the one that lead to the living room, and I noticed the box full of aluminum steel bats and another smaller box of baseball's. "For tonight?" I asked.

"Emmett got excited." Bella giggled. "He misses not being able to play sports all the time."

"Hey Edward!" Alice thrilled as she walked from the second story with Jasper trailing behind her.

"Hey Alice, hey Jasper." I smiled back at them.

They told me that Rosalie, Emmett and Esme were all hunting, and Carlisle ran from the living room and towards the forest to join them, he had gone longer than the rest and didn't want Jasper to feel his thirst.

We watched a movie with Jasper and Alice before, at ten o'clock, Alice told Bella that we should go now. I was confused until Bella, who ad taken me with her to the kitchen, grabbed a backpack off of the counter and placed drink bottles and a few sandwiches into it. "We're going for a walk." She smiled at me lightly.

"And you'll show me what you look like in the sun?" I asked excitedly. I had been waiting for this for a while now, but I still couldn't manage to conquer that irrational panic that told me not to let her get hit by the natural light.

'She won't combust or anything, she will glitter.'

"Yer, if you still want that."

"Of course!"

"Alright, can you put this on your back please?" She handed me the backpack that she had been stuffing food into and but it on my back. She turned in front of me and I knew that I had to get on her back. I did , wrapping my arms and legs round her waist and neck. She took off from the kitchen, thrum the back door and to the forest.

"The others are hunting nowhere near where we are going, I made sure of that." She told me. The sun was barely visible just yet, but I knew that sooner or later the light would make an appearance. I just couldn't wait.

"Where are we going?"

"There is a little meadow not too far from here, I like to go there sometimes. I think that this will be the perfect place to show you everything." I nodded against her neck.

She stopped after a few moments and let go of my legs. I stood on my own two feet again and took her hand. We walked through the few ferns and my eyebrows raised at the sight before me. The meadow was beautiful, almost perfectly rounded and with little purple, yellow and white wild flowers all over the place.

"Wow, it's beautiful."

"I think so."

"I can only imagine how it would look in the sun."

"Well you won't have to wait too long for the sun light now." She lead me to the middle and pulled the blanket from the bag on my back. I took the backpack from my back and held onto it. We sat together on the blanket, facing each other.

"Do you miss the sun?"

"Yes, sometimes."

"I don't like that I could that the ability to live somewhere sunny away from you."

"Bella," I said, cupping her face in my large hands. "You know that I would rather live in rainy towns with you than someplace as sunny as phoenix without you."

"But you shouldn't have too."

"But I can, and I want to." The sun started to break through the clouds than, only lightly but enough for us to notice. She let go of my hand and took off her jacket. She had a thin white singlet top on and I marveled at all of the new skin that me eyes had access to. The sun broke through the clouds more and there was a definite difference to her skin. There was a light glitter there.

But then the sun broke through completely, bathing s and the meadow in the wonderful sunlight that I had craved to see her in for so long. And she…….. sparkled, glittered, shone. All of those things. Her skin looked like the diamonds that were allowed to see the sun light and she looked more beautiful than ever.

"Bella…….." I breathed.

She looked up at me, frightened of my reaction. I was sure that my heart was racing, but she was probably taking that the wrong way.

"You're just so…….." She moved further away from me.

"Beautiful." That made her stop. She looked up at me and smiled at me again.

"Really?" She whispered.

"Of course." I raised my hand and softly stroked her soft, glittering cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Two hours later found me lying on my back, on hand behind my head and one hand stroking Bella's hair. Her head was resting on my lap. My head was on the backpack, my hand on top so that I was still comfortable.

Part of me wanted to close my eyes, to let the sunlight warm me and my eye lids. But the bigger part of me, the part that was unwilling to tear my eyes from her, made me keep them open, hesitating even to blink. I sighed, she was just so beautiful, and I was looking forward to the day that I could glitter with her. Would she think that I, too, were beautiful?

She looked up at me in response to the sigh. She smiled at me, taking in my lazy smile.

"Are you getting hungry?" She asked me.

"A little actually." I said after I thought.

She sat up and I sat up. Se got the bag from where I had been resting my head and pulled the food that she had packed from the bag.

"So I made some sandwiches, and packed some of those packet chips and some water. Is that alright?"

"That's perfect." I leaned over to kiss her. She hummed against my lips and I smiled again in contentment.

We made small talk while I ate, nothing of great consequence. She told me stories of their previous baseball matches because I wasn't speaking much, what with the eating and all.

By the time that she had finished talking I couldn't wait for tonight's baseball game.

Three hours later, five hours after we had gotten to the meadow, the sun retreated to behind the clouds and we started to pack up. According to Alice, the storm would be starting about five. That gave us another two hours to get back to the house, get ready and get to the field.

She ran back to the house with me on her back, clinging tightly and enjoying the sensation of being so tightly pressed up against her. The others weren't back by the time that we got home but Alice and Jasper were lounging round the T.V.

"What do you think about the whole glittering thing?" Jasper asked me, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. I don't know what he thought that we did there, but obviously we didn't.

"It was awesome, ha ha you sparkle like a diamond. That's real manly Jazz." That wiped that smug smile off of his face. We spent the day reading, watching movies and T.V and talking. They started to tell me stories about the past, things that I missed but now wished that I was there for. They were halfway through telling me the story about Emmett swimming in a lake full of piranhas after he had lost a bet when the others got home.

We greeted them but continued the story after they went upstairs to get cleaned up and changed.

"We should get up and get changed, the thunder and the lightening will start up soon and we want to play for as long as possible." The other two ran upstairs to get changed and I turned to Bella. She threw me up into her arms and before I knew what was happening I was in her room.

"Still loose manliness after you do that." I stumbled a bit after she put me back onto my feet and she giggled. "Why do you all have to get changed?" I thought that jeans and a t-shirt would have been fine to play baseball.

"We all have a baseball outfit from when we were changed, except for Carlisle, Jasper and Alice. Those two have ones from the fifties, when they joined us, and Carlisle had one from 1918, just like I do. That was the first time that he really got to play."

"So you woke up as a newborn and the first thing that you decided to do was play baseball?" I asked sarcastically.

"No." She said blankly. "The first thing that I did as a newborn was get shocked at everything that was new, proceeded by ripping the throats from three very scared dears. Baseball was a way that Carlisle help me to get me strength in check." Well I hadn't been expecting that.

I knew that that thirst must have been had, but I still don't think that I grabbed just how strong this was, the force behind it.

"How did baseball help?"

"Well first I had to stop turning them to dust whenever I held one." She said as she walked to the closet. I sat on the couch because she was probably going to get dressed there. "Then we worked on me throwing and catching the ball, making our way to a human speed. That was one of the things that we tried." She came back to me from the closet in an old fashioned baseball shirt that was a little bit to big for her and tight leggings that reached just past her knees. How she could wear something so simple and still look like a model was stunning.

"Did you do that with everybody?" I asked after I finished (noticeably) gawking at her.

"Yes and no. We always did activities, but we changed what we did. Carlisle choose baseball with me because he had just started to watch some games and was excited that he finally got what was happening." She laughed lightly. "Yes Carlisle, I'm making fun of you!" She said at the same pitch. He walk through her door.

"Well that's just mean, you have no idea how long that took me." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "And the whole theory worked didn't it?" He smiled lightly. He was wearing a shirt the same as Bella's, but larger, and white cotton pants. Both of their shirts were from the Chicago team.

"Yes, your magical idea worked, even if we destroyed at least a hundred baseballs."

"Yes well." He looked bashful. "If you hadn't threw some of them at me when you got angry."

"You were annoying me!"

"Still, they were too hard to catch without destroying."

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have been annoying."

He snorted at that, a sound that I wouldn't have expected coming from him.

"Not my fault that you were being irrational." He shrugged and left the room laughing.

"Let's go." She grabbed my hand. "I don't want to throw anything else at him." I laughed and walked with her to the kitchen, where everybody else was waiting in similar outfits, but depending on what team and at what age they were bought.

"Are you positive that nothing is going to happen?" Esme asked Alice.

"I'm sure."

"Great." Emmett picked up the bats and Jasper got up the balls and they ran together to the forest. Alice sighed and ran after them muttering something about the male gender and impatience. That was rich, coming from her. Rosalie spun on her toe and strutted from the room, breaking to a run after she reached the threshold. "We'll see the two of you later." Esme grabbed Carlisle's had and the two of them smiled at us before sprinting off.

I turned to her, absorbing her bright gold eyes and light smile. "So how far away is the field?"

"Not to far, just a few miles really – we can get there in no time. Want to get on my back? I'm not quite sure that going at this speed is healthy for your legs if I carry you." I nodded, walking behind her and jumping up on her back, wrapping my legs round her waist and arms her neck.

"Go." I said in a steely voice, pointing forward. She snorted and wrpped her hands round my legs before sprinting through the glass door. I was getting used to the feeling of the wind and the sight of the trees. I laughed at the freedom of it all and saw her smiling up at me.

"You like this?" She asked me.

"Yes, it's just so exciting."

"Well than you'll love it when you're a vampire." I stilled on her back, feeling first the shock and than the joy build up inside of me. "Edward? I'm sorry – "

"You just agreed to changing me!" I thrilled.

"Na-ah!"

"Ya-ha! You just said, quote, 'when you're a vampire'. Agreed!"

"Well I never said no." I smirked at her, even though she couldn't see.

"You're right though." I said.

"About what?"

"I think that I will love it, we can run together."

"Yer," She said after a moment, wistfully. "I think that I would like that, running with you."

"You're running with me now." I didn't want to ruin the now romantic moment, but that one was just too easy to pass up. I could practically feel her rolling her eyes.

"You know what I mean love."

"Yer, I know what you mean." I pressed a kiss to her hair, hoping that that brought back some of the romance. We ran for a few more moments before we entered the clearing where the rest of the family was waiting. She slowed than took me off of her back. I took her hand and than together we made our way towards Esme, Emmett and Rosalie. They were sitting together on a cropping of the rocks. Esme and Emmett stood up to walk towards us, Rosalie sat still. Carlisle was setting up the bases, way further away than they could possibly be if they were humans that were playing that game. They must hit really, really hard. Jasper and Alice were throwing a ball back and forth, I think at least. Their hands and the white spot flying between them were just a blur.

"Sup kids!" Emmett boomed, acting as though we hadn't just seen each other just ten minutes ago.

"Hey Emmett."

"Do you know the rules of baseball Edward?" Esme asked me sweetly.

"Yes."

"Would you mind referring with me?"

"You don't play? You don't have to stop just because of me."

"Oh, I always referee."

"She thinks that we cheat." Emmett rolled his eyes.

"That's because you do." She didn't take her eyes away from me. The others gathered round us now.

"I call Jasper!" Alice chirped.

"Well I call Bella." Emmett retorted.

"Jasper is the fastest, but Bella is a close second." Esme explained to me and I nodded. "Emmett is the strongest but you probably already got that." She giggled.

I just nodded again.

"We get Carlisle!"

"Well I get Rosalie." She was glaring at her husband, obviously pissed that Bella had been picked before her. I got that vibe that Rosalie didn't like to be picked last at anything.

They all ran away than, Emmett's team towards the field and Alice's to the bats.

Rosalie pitched the ball, Emmett stayed in the infield and Bella want long.

Alice batted first whilst Jasper caught.

"Watch this." Esme commented to me after we had sat on the rocks that her and the others had been sitting on earlier.

Rosalie took her stand, and than threw the ball, blindingly fast, and Alice got the hit on the first try. They huge bang sounded like thunder and I immediately got the need for the thunder and the lightening. We started to run towards the first base and Emmett started to trail her.

"That has just got to be a home run." I muttered.

"Just wait a moment, Bella just might get it yet." Than I noticed that Bella was missing.

She immerged just moments later with the ball clasped tightly in her hand, her smile reflecting the light.

The game continued, the score points going back and forth. Bella was amazing, as fast as the lighting that boomed round us. They had been playing for about a half an hour and Alice's team was up by two, Carlisle had just scored another home run.

Then everything changed. Alice gasped, Jasper whipped his head round at the noise and at her emotions than ran to her side, taking her in his arms and wrapping her tightly in his embrace. The others, except for Esme ran to her side. They spoke together for a few moments before Esme gasped.

"What, what happened?" I asked her. But than Bella ran to my side, wrapping her arms protectively round my waist.

"Can I run with him?"

"No, they are too close, they could catch his scent." Alice told her.

"So what, they have no chance against the lot of us." Emmett told her.

"We want to keep the peace for as long as we can, we don't want to start a fight." Carlisle said, the voice of reason.

"So we just let him stay here!" Bella cried.

"Yes, we can try to confuse them, we can stick together so that they don't know who the human is." Rosalie said, surprising me.

"He's tan and bright green eyes and has a heartbeat, there is no chance that they will not know who the human is." Bella retorted.

"Well I was just trying to help." Rosalie said defensively.

"But are they thirsty?" Esme asked Alice, clinging to my right arm. Alice's face went blank for a moment before she came to.

"There not thirsty, but they do know that Edward is a human. I can't see what is going to happen, but…." She trialed off, but the intent was clear.

They continued to speak to fast for me to understand but Bella was mostly still.

"How could I have let this happen?" Bella groaned and I put my spare arm, that Esme let go off, on her face, cupping her cheek.

"I am so sorry, I should have seen this sooner." Alice muttered. Jasper put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"This isn't your fault Alice, they didn't decide to come until they heard us playing."

"So we have no idea what they are going to do after they see Edward?" Bella asked her again.

"No there are too many possibilities, to many things that could influence their decisions." Bella nodded again.

The others separated slightly, forming a loose circle round me and Bella either to give us some privacy or to protect the two of us.

"The others are coming?" I asked her but already knew.

"Yes, I'm sorry, so sorry." She bit her bottom lip and I ran my fingers threw her hair.

"Everything will be alright."

"You can't know that."

They all tensed again and turned to the west. The formed a protective triangle against me. Carlisle was at the front with the two boys flanking him. Rosalie flanked Emmett and Alice flanked Jasper. Esme stood next to Rosalie on the inside and Bella did the same but with Alice. I stood between the two girls.

They immerged from the forest, on the other side of the field, but I couldn't miss them. They flashed to about two hundred meters from us, walked the rest of the way at a human pace. There were three of them, two males and one female. The first male, the one that was leading, had an olive tone under the chalky pallor of his skin. I had dreadlocks that went to halfway down his back. He was wearing a white shirt, a ripped jacket and blue jeans.

The other male that flanked him on the left was as pale as the others with light brown hair that was tied back at a ponytail at the base of his neck, nice like Jacob Black. He was only wearing blue jeans and a white singlet shirt. He looked really shifty, and immediately I didn't trust him.

The third one, the woman, had flame red hair – it was about as long as the man's with the dreadlocks. There were twigs stuck in her hair and that made her look or the more wild. She was wearing light blue skinny jeans, a blue shirt and a white jacket that looked to be a men's size.

They were different from the Cullens. They had scarlet eyes, eyes that were all staring at me. They could obviously see the protective circle that had been formed round me, my tan skin, my bright green eyes, my racing heart beat.

The male, the pale looking one, was staring at me intently, looking first at me and than at Bella, and than back at me. He was planning something, I was sure of that. But the way that Alice, Jasper, Bella and Emmett had stiffened up was what scared me the most. The was that the two boys seemed to be just radiating hatred towards the coven, the way that Bella slowly went to a more defensive position, as if she was preparing for an attack. The way that Alice seemed to shrink back, as if she were scared too. Jasper reached his hand back, not taking his eyes off of James, and Alice took it, seeming to need the comfort. The other members of the family had noticed the behaviour of their loved ones too, and they too straightened up and shifted slightly, as if about to take a blow. The pale one smiled, looking back at me, than Bella, than Alice and than back at me again. This vampire was up to no good. That one was planning something that was going to change everything.


	9. Chapter 9 The Tracker

**This chapter (apart from the first few pages ) was written in the past school holidays, the day after I went to a movie marathon that ended at 4.30 in the morning. I didn't get up until three that afternoon and was still writing at 1.18 the next morning, and somehow I was still tired. If the writing is sloppy, blame my bodies annoying avoidance of a regular sleeping pattern, my friend for making encouraging my idea that we should have gone to that event and the fact that all that I have eaten today are things that are usually only eaten for breakfast. **

**Also, I own none of the information on any of the characters, or any of the noticeable lines from any of the books from the twilight sage, including the unfinished midnight sun.**

**Just by the way, who thinks that S.M should keep on writing that, seriously?!! And who is looking forward to the new book!**

**Also, I want to thank Blue Eyes Hawk and StarDancer013 for their constant reviews, and everybody else that takes the time! To ttyyytt and ****muzikgirl12**** for their constant support and interesting conversations. Please Review!!**

Edward Point Of View –

The man with the dreadlocks stepped forward with a polite smile on his inhuman face.

"Hello." He said, still cautious, seemingly unsure about what he was facing. "My name is Laurent, and these are James and Victoria."

"I am Carlisle, and this is my family. Jasper, Emmett, Alice, Rosalie, Edward, Esme and Bella." I felt a thrill go thru me as they again referred to me as family, would I ever get used to that? That feeling of joy, love and acceptance that saturated my body whenever they called me that?

I could see the others raising their eyebrows at the word 'family'. I wondered why, but then remembered that most vampires called their groups covens, not families. Laurent seemed more affected than the other two, they still seemed like they knew something.

"Yes, we are already familiar with a few members of your……..'family'." Laurent said. Everybody looked at Jasper, Emmett, Alice and Bella.

Little Alice cleared her throat, and I felt courage getting pushed to anybody that was standing behind Jasper.

"Yer, James is the one that knew who I was when I was a human, he was the one that gave us those leads."

"I found that you had some quite persuasive techniques." James's eyes flickered between Jasper and Emmett.

"We mean no harm by being here, we were simply passing through." Laurent said again.

"We would appreciate it if you stopped hunting here, we need to remain inconspicuous." Carlisle said.

"Oh yes, I had forgotten about that. You keep a permanent residency here, is that right?" Victoria asked them, though I dobuted that she nedded the conformation.

"Yes."

"How very interesting, this lifestyle that you choose for yourself." James mused, seeming to come to life a little bit more.

"It works for us." Carlisle said with a calm smile on his face.

"We prefer this life style to the alternative." Esme said, supporting her husband.

Victoria rolled her eyes. "You have no idea what you're missing."

""I have got to ask," Laurent said, seeming to not want to start a fight. "Your eyes are still that golden colour, proving that you still live off the animal diet, but yet you have brought a snack to the game?"

Bella's growl could be heard for miles. I flinched at the volume. Bella stood dead in front of me, her arms spread slightly to protect me. Why couldn't we be the other way round?

"The boy is not food." Alice said.

"But the boy is a human!" Victoria exclaimed the word.

"And what?" Emmett said.

"You told that human about us?" Laurent said. "That is breaking the rules. You have to kill him now." The vampire seemed eager for my death, stepping forward with a look that said 'this information is obvious.'.

"Or change him, obviously." Jasper said.

"He does smell very nice, doesn't he?" James said. Everybody stiffened at that. The Cullens and Laurent looked worried but James and Victoria looked excited. Alice gasped.

"You leave him alone!" She screamed at them. "Edward isn't a toy!"

"Everything is fairer this way Alice sweetheart, they get you, but I get the boy." The Cullens growled. Bella threw me on her back, Alice and Esme followed us. We ran, at her full speed, back to the house and I tried to understand where everything had gone wrong. She ran thru the back door and gently lifted me off of her back.

"I'm so, I'm so, so sorry." She said, starting to pace.

"Bella, Bella." I said, putting my hands on her arms and she stopped pacing, looking at me with would-be tears in her eyes. "Everything will be alright."

"What will he do now?" Esme asked Alice. Her eyes went blank for a few moments before she came back too.

"He's going to track him." Bella hissed at that news, but I had no idea what was going on.

"What does that mean?" I asked them.

Bella had rested her head on my chest and I wrapped my arms round her tense frame. Alice turned round to tell me, before she snapped her mouth shut and looked towards the forest. Laurent and the rest of the family came running towards us. Bella growled when she caught Laurent's scent, Stepping from my embrace and putting me behind her back, crouching in front of me.

"Relax Bella, Laurent is going to help us." Carlisle said calmingly, placing a hand on her shoulder before walked over and wrapping an arm round Esme's waist, but still standing slightly in front of her. Carlisle obviously didn't fully trust Laurent yet either.

Bella stood up and stood next to me. I wrapped my arm round her waist and she relaxed into my side. I kissed just above her ear and she sighed.

'That's right, I might not be able to protect her, but I could relax the crap out of her. ' I thought sarcastically. But it was still nice to know that I could do something helpful all the same.

"I want no part of this," Laurent began. "I have grown sick of James and his games, and I am intrigued but this lifestyle that you have made, are there any others like you?"

"UP in Denali." Carlisle said.

"Thankyou. But you need to be careful of James, he is lethal. His tracking abilities are unparallel and he never gives up."

"We already knew that." Emmett sneered.

"I do apologies for what happened the last time that we met, but I do want you to know that I wasn't there when James found you Alice, and neither was Victoria." Laurent nodded at Alice and Jasper stood in front of her, snarling.

"You have a decision to make, either fight with us or we will have to ask you to leave the area." Carlisle said.

Laurent nodded. "I won't fight against him, as I said, I want no part of this disagreement." He ran from the house and towards the forest.

"Fight?" I asked, but nobody answered.

"What happened after we left?" Bella asked them.

"James tried to follow but Emmett stopped him. Victoria pounced on Rosalie so Emmett let go of James and ran over to help Rosalie." I just realized that her hair had twigs in it and she had dirt smeared on her face. That wasn't going to help her liking of me. "So then James got away and we all had Victoria. She started to scream at us, telling us that they would get Edward. She started to tell us that they would always win and that they would kill anybody that tried to stop them." Jasper said.

"Then what?" Esme asked them. Jas, Emmett, Rosalie and Carlisle looked at me. They looked worried, like they could scare me with their words. As my eyes were flickering between Rosalie and Jasper, I saw something in the distance.

"Is that smoke?" I asked them. The three women that had ran me home all turned towards the window and to where I was looking, and than they gasped.

"You didn't!" Esme gasped.

Carlisle pulled her tighter to him.

"Sorry." He seemed distraught, and she put a comforting hand on his cheek. I was so confused, and of course Jasper realized that.

"The smoke is from Victoria, we killed her." He said grimly. I felt my eyes widen.

"Oh." They killed somebody, for me? I couldn't help the joy that rose up in me, not that she was dead, but because they were wiling to do that for me. I tried to stamp that down so that Jasper wouldn't feel the emotion and think that I was a total freak but he did. After analyzing my emotions for a few moments he nodded in understanding.

"I get it."

"But you guys could get hurt because of this." I said worriedly. Jasper rolled his eyes, Emmett snorted, Esme smiled warmly and Bella huffed. She then turned round in my arms.

"That's not seriously what you are worrying about!?" She exclaimed.

"Yes?" My answer sounded like a question.

"Edward this is more dangerous for you than it is for us, James is the reason that I had to get changed." Alice said meekly. Jasper sat on the couch and pulled her onto his lap.

"What?" I asked, but I had heard her story.

"When I was at that asylum, there was a vampire that worked there. He became fond of me but somehow, James caught my scent. He tried to hunt and track me, _exactly_ what he is doing to you, and the other vampire changed me. But James got to him before I woke up and James killed the other man. That's why I was all alone when I woke up."

"Oh." I said quietly. How do you respond to something like that? "So that's why you got all tense when they come into view?" I asked them.

"You noticed that?" Jasper asked and I nodded. "Observant."

"But what do we do now? If James is tracking us, he is going to be even more pissed now that we killed his mate." Bella said.

"Well, if James is tracking Edward, than we hide Edward and we track James." Jasper said simply.

"Hide him where?"

"Here."

"But James will be able to tell where we live. James can track our scent."

"Won't he be able to track my scent to my house?" I interrupted, suddenly worried for my mother, the unsuspecting human that had no idea what type of world that she really lived in. They all tensed at my words and I knew that I was right.

"I hadn't thought about her." Bella told us quietly.

Jasper buried his head in Alice's hair, who was looking through the future. Emmett started to pace, and Rosalie looked pissed. Esme and Carlisle stood still, until Carlisle ran his fingers threw his gold coloured hair and Esme looked over at us.

"We split up into groups, two or three. A party to protect Edward, one for his mother and on to hunt James." Jasper said.

"I'm on the hunting team." Emmett said immediately and Rosalie looked at him, worried for her loved ones safety. Emmett was obviously looking forward to the now unavoidable fight.

"Me, Emmett and Rosalie are our best fighters, so we should each be on one of the teams." Jasper said.

"Rosalie and I can take care of Elizabeth, if you want." Carlisle nodded stiffly. Obviously he didn't like that his wife had to be involved in this, but thought that that would be the safest place for her.

"Emmett, Carlisle and I can hunt." Bella said, surprising everyone. I whipped my head round to look at her, she wouldn't make eyes contact.

"You don't want to stay with him?" Rosalie asked smugly, but still shocked.

"Of course I do, but the tracker will think that I would stay with Edward. James saw how I reacted to the threat at the field." They were all silent for a moment, and while I didn't like to admit that she was right, she did have a point. But still,, I wanted to stay with her. Plus I didn't want her hunting, I didn't want any of them risking themselves for me but especially not Bella.

"She's right." Jasper said thoughtfully. "So Alice and I will take him somewhere.

"Somewhere that vampires wouldn't go." Carlisle said.

"Somewhere sunny." Bella.

"Arizona." Alice said.

"Arizona?"

"Yes, Arizona. We can stay at a hotel there, I don't see anything happening there, not now at least. But we can't stay here. James is tracking the area, looking for his scent."

"Rose, Esme can you to Edward's house now." Jasper said sternly, his military past coming out to play.

They each kissed their mate before running to the door. Before she left, Esme stopped by a little keypad on the wall near the archway that lead from the entry to the living room. She typed a few numbers and than with a groan, huge metal shutters started to come up from the roof, covering the glass wall. Fancy.

"I didn't even know that we had those, did you guys know that we had those?" Emmett asked, shocked. The others all shook their head and looked at Esme, who shrugged and said –

"Just to be careful."

"Bella, go upstairs and pack a bag, plus get Edward's bag" Bella dashed from my arms and returned only moments later, with my bag over her shoulder and still trying to zip up her bag. I took my one from her and she smiled gratefully.

"Thankyou."

Was it at all ironic that I was not only putting her in danger, but her entire family and she was saying thankyou because I took my bag off of her shoulder?

"We can go and get our bags now." Little Alice said quietly, and the other's nodded and followed her up the stairs. As soon as they were gone Bella dropped her bag, pushed mine off of my shoulder and put her hands on my face, as if she was trying to warn me of something. As if I needed to be warned. I inched closer to her and she crashed her lips to mine. She pulled me closer to her, all the lines of my body were touching hers. There was a newfound urgency in her kiss that left me breathless in the first second.

Sure, we had shared kisses before that left me breathless, that were urgent and passionate and made my body react in an ungentlemanly fashion, but they were never anything like this. I could tell that she too, was scared. This was the first time that we would be away from each other for more than a weekend, this was the first time that we would be separated and we had no idea when we would see each other again. This was the first time that we were both in danger, no matter what she said about her always being a threat to my safety.

She pulled away after a few moments, allowing me to breath, and looked me sternly in the eye. "You stay safe, alright? Do whatever Jazz and Alice tell you to do, alright?"

"Alright." I buried my head in her hair and took a deep breath, continuing to commit her smell to my memory. I didn't want her to see my eyes, because I was screwed if she did. She would see what I was trying to hide from her, the woman could read me like a book. I was probably being a bit melodramatic, there was only one James and seven of The Cullens. Three of them were hunting James, really there was no way that they could loose, this was a numbers game. James had already lost Victoria and Laurent. But still…. I couldn't live without her.

"Do I have to be away from you?"

"That's the only way that makes sense."

"I know." I sighed.

"Than why….?" She trailed off, laughing lightly.

"You can't blame a guy for trying can you?"

"I guess not." She nuzzled her face into my neck.

"What if you guys get hurt?"

"We wont, there are to many of us, plus, you just need to worry about yourself."

"Because that's so easy to do." I muttered, smirking.

I pulled her closer again, closing my eyes. By the time that I opened them again the other's were coming back to the living room and Bella was looking at them.

"Come on guys, we need to go now." Jasper said, his voice softer than it had been before.

"And can you swap your jacket for one of the ones in the bag Edward, we need to confuse the scent for as long as we can." Carlisle told me. I nodded and took off the jacket and put on one of the extra ones that I had packet. Bella grabbed my jacket and put it on over top of hers. I have to admit, no matter how inappropriate this as at this time, that I really loved seeing her in my clothes. Jasper smirked and I rolled my eyes at him, knowing what Jazz was probably thinking.

"Thankyou, you three will need to take the Mercedes, you will need the tint if you are going south." Jasper, Carlisle and Bella were all carrying small bags, Alice probably had her clothes in the bag that Jasper was carrying because all that she had was a small handbag. Emmett, on the other hand, had a big backpackers backpack. I was trying hard not to think about what was packed there.

"Let's go and get ourselves some vampire." Emmett smirked. That was more inappropriate than my ogling Bella. They all started to run towards the door and Bella picked me up again.

"We don't want anybody to catch your scent, anymore than they will anyways." She shrugged. When we got to the garage she put me back on the ground next to the Mercedes.

I opened the back door and sat in the car. Jasper and Alice were already there, sitting in the front seat and starting the engine.

"I love you." She kissed me one more time before closing the door. They pulled from the garage, and than she was gone.

I sighed.

"Come on Ed!" Alice cheered.

"Don't call me Ed."

"This will be just like a road trip!"

"Except for the fact that we are running from a vampire that wants Edward dead." Jasper drawled dryly.

"Edward, stop missing Bella, your mopeness is rubbing off on my husband."

I snorted.

"So have you ever been…. Where we are going?" Alice asked me.

"Once, when I was eight. I have an aunt that lives there."

"What is her name?"

"Caroline."

"What side?"

"My dad's little sister."

"Did you get along?"

"Yer, I guess so, why?"

"Just wondering, I don't remember any of my human family."

"Have you ever met your sisters daughter?"

"Yes."

"Well you remember her."

She threw me an annoyed glance. "That's not the same and you know it."

I shrugged, smiling.

"How long do you think that we will be there for?"

"As long as it takes. Probably only a few days. We will be back by the time that we told your mother no doubt."

"Alright."

"Are you hungry?" Jasper asked after a few moments of comfortable silence.

"A little bit, but I can wait."

"Well we can by at Seattle in four hours time or do you want to stop at Port Angeles?"

"That would be dangerous though wouldn't it?"

"Probably, but just a little bit."

"I can wait till we get to Seattle."

"Alright than." Jasper shrugged easily. We made small talk all the way to Seattle with Alice giving us regular updates. I think that Jasper told her how edgy and worried I was getting. We stopped at a McDonalds drive thru and I got the food that I was craving. Extra salty chips – yumm.

"You know that you really should sleep Edward." Alice said round two am.

"Not tired."

"Yes you are." Jasper laughed.

"Only a little bit, besides, I just don't want to sleep." If I slept, I wouldn't be able to control what I said or what I thought. If I slept I would probably dream about having to leave Bella again, I didn't want to ever have to do that again.

"After another hour I am putting you to sleep though." Jasper said. But it had only been a half hour when I felt the false fatigue start to run thru my system.

"Hey!" I slurred. "That hasn't been an hour." My voice was groggy and didn't sound like I usually did. Most of the time I didn't bother trying to fight the sleep.

"Well, two thirty, you should be sleeping by now, Bella would be pissed if she knew how late we let you stay up for." Thinking about Bella woke me up a bit. "If she call's I promise to wake you up."

"Alright." I sighed, allowing the sleep to take me.

I dreamt that we were in the field again, but this time there was a fight. Bella was battling James and Victoria was on fire. Laurent was talking about the Denali's to the Cullen's . They weren't listening to Laurent though, they were holding up signs that said 'Go Bella!' I stood shocked, trying to get them to help her, after I discovered that I couldn't move. I woke up with a start. Alice was sitting next to me and shaking my shoulder.

"What?" I asked her, still groggy. The sun was coming threw the tinted windows by this time and Alice was glowing slightly. The clock on the dash said 10:38 am.

"Are you alright? You were starting to make funny noises again. I swear that you almost strangled yourself with that seatbelt like two hours ago."

"I am alright, thankyou for waking me up though."

" That's alright, but Bella is on the phone too." She handed me the plastic and I scrambled to get to it, overjoyed to be getting the chance to hear her magical voice again.

"Bella!" I exclaimed.

"Edward! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Love, what about you?"

"We're alright, we almost got James a few hours ago but We lost him, we have no idea now."

"Where are you?"

"We led him inland and than north, were just in some forest now, we are near Montesano now.."

"I miss you." I said quietly. The other two looked out of their windows, as if giving us privacy.

"I miss you too Edward, I love you, even if I have put you thru all of this."

"Bella this isn't your fault." I said, frustrated.

"I just shouldn't have taken you to that game."

"It was fun though." I heard her sigh on the other end of the phone.

"Until we got ambushed by bloodthirsty vampires."

"Yer well, up until that bit."

I could hear Emmett, I think that it was Emmett, in the back ground and than the unmistakable sound of the wind blowing. Probably from her running.

"I have got to go Edward, Emmett just got James' scent."

"Alright, bye, be safe." I said.

"I love you." Than she hung up. I sighed again.

I handed the phone back to Alice.

"It's good that they have gotten this close to James, epically this early." Jasper told me.

"But what if they get hurt."

"They won't." Said Alice.

"Can you see anything?" We both asked her.

"They don't get James this time, he escapes somehow." I sat back on my seat, sighing again.

We drove for another ten hours. They got me food another two times, no matter if I said that I wasn't hungry. We stopped at a café and I got out and walked because Jasper was complaining that I was getting restless. We made small talk and Alice kept on giving us updates. Apparently Rosalie and Esme had gone to work with my mother.

Alice called ahead and made reservations at a hotel near the airport. I asked why we needed to be near there and they said 'just to be safe.'. I didn't argue any further than that.

So at 8.40pm we pulled up at the Hilton, just a few minutes drive from the airport. I hadn't been expecting something this high priced but whatever they wanted. Jasper got the key for the room whilst Alice and I looked round the lobby. There was a piano that somebody that the hotel hired had just started to play at and to the side there was a fancy bar.

"Thankyou Mr. Whitlock, we hope that you have a great stay." The woman bettered her eye lashes at Jasper and Alice walked up and hooked her arm round her husbands, smiling sweetly at the woman.

"Thankyou, my husband and I will have a great stay." She winked at the woman before strutting away with Jazz on her arm and me walking along next to them.

"Nice one." I muttered.

"Well no other woman should be hitting on my man." Alice said. Jasper snorted.

"At least you don't have to feel the emotions of the men that ogle you."

"Does that ever stop?" I asked them.

"Nope."

"Great." I muttered.

"Don't like the other men staring at Bella?" Jasper asked.

"Nope, my Bella."

"Understandable."

"It's everywhere we go! They don't even try to hide the staring!" I ranted.

They just laughed at me. "You get used to it, but that doesn't make things any easier." Jasper said. "It will be better when you're a vampire because than you can scare the guys, or sometimes girls, that stare at Bella." He smirked.

"Jasper likes to scare men." Alice said dryly. "He glares at them and than increases the fear." She rolled her gold eyes.

"I kinda like that idea." I smiled, imagining the possibilities. Jasper smirked at me, nodding. Alice just rolled her eyes. They made me eat again when we got to the room, saying something about growling teenage boys needing to eat. I just shrugged and ate the overpriced stake and potatoes.

Jasper pulled out equipment from the backpack that he had been carrying.

"I need a picture of you." He said holding up a camera. He stood up and walked over to a plain white patch of wall, I followed him.

"What for?"

"Fake ID and fake passport, just incase." I nodded after I recovered from the initial shock. Jasper took the picture and nodded in satisfaction.

"You know who to do that?" I asked him.

"What take a picture?" He asked me smirking.

"You know what I mean."

"Yes, we all can, but Alice and I usually do them."

"Wow."

"Alright, I need to go to the lobby to get these printed off, I'll be back soon."

"Alright."

"Be back soon love." Alice called from the kitchen. I had no idea what she was doing there.

Jasper came back soon enough and set to work on making my fake passport and ID.

Jasper put me to sleep again at midnight saying something about not wanting to mix up my sleeping patterns to much. I didn't sleep for to long, getting up at four and seven again, after I had fallen asleep, thankyou Jasper.

When I woke up on Friday morning, my passport and ID were made, and they almost looked better than my real ones. They only difference was that I didn't look nearly as stressed in my other pictures. Oh, and these ones had Edward Cullen on them. I got all choked up seeing the family name attached to mine. This was also Bella's chosen name, and I love knowing that I had the same name as her. I wanted all of our last names to be the same.

I heard Alice gasp and than squeal.

I put the fake document in my wallet but Jasper kept the passport. Bella, Emmett and Carlisle still hadn't called. I was getting anxious, I hadn't heard her voice since Thursday morning. Usually, even when she was hunting, she would call every twelve. But this was different, it wasn't just that I hadn't spoken to her or heard her voice, but that I had no idea what was going on. Alice wasn't getting very clear visions, nothing was decided yet.

We were sitting on the over priced couch in the over priced (though very nice) hotel room. The mobile phone was sitting innocently on the coffee table in front of me. I was meant to be watching the T.V., like Alice and Jasper said that they were, but they were too tense to do that. I heard the tell tale music of the Zumba add and lifted my eyes to glare at the screen, stupid Zumba. Why would anybody pay to dance in a box formation?

The phone was taunting me, threatening me with all of the possibilities of what could be happening to her, to them. I turned to look at Alice, who looked at me from the corner of her eyes but didn't move her body. I turned my head and looked back at the phone. I ran my fingers thru my hair, scratching my scalp slightly but finding that that didn't calm me anywhere near as much as when Bella did that. I sighed again before I snapped.

"What does it mean that they haven't called?"

Alice looked at me, her eyes big, bright and innocent. Too innocent. "That they have nothing to tell us, or maybe they are busy with James. Maybe James is too close, if they talk to us something might get said that gives away where you are. They wouldn't want to risk anything bad happening. Plus, maybe James doesn't know that they are near by, talking loud enough fro you to hear could give them away." She shrugged.

I nodded, turning back to look at the phone. "I hate being a human." I muttered.

"You should use your specie to your advantage before you change, you never know what you might miss."

"What do you miss the most?" I asked Jasper.

"Apart from not being thirsty and my family? Probably being able to go for walks in the sun with my friends. I really do miss the sunlight."

I nodded, understanding. "Living at rainy places all the time will suck. I love the sun."

"We can still go out in the sun, just not round the humans, except for you." Jasper said that last part slyly. I laughed.

"I wish that I could do the whole girly thing. I wish that I could go to a sleepover and eat candy and talk about my boyfriend and giggle and stay up late before crashing from a sugar high." Alice giggled.

"Can you imagine that? You, Rosalie and Bella eating candy and having pillow fights?" I laughed.

"Is that really what girls do at those things?" Jasper asked me.

"Well how would I know?" I asked only slightly offended. Just because I was human didn't mean that I knew what girls did when they slept over people's houses. Shit, besides Bella and a few other family members house that me and my parents had stayed at, I had only ever been to like, two sleepovers. Both before I was ten.

"Well you are a human." Alice said.

"But you're a girl."

"Who was born in 1902, and doesn't have any memories. What do I know about sleepovers?" She shrugged.

"We can go and ask Jessica Stanley later, she might know." I shrugged.

"I might just do that." Alice looked that much happier that I just had to laugh.

At nine o'clock, or sometime between nine and ten at least, Alice had another vision.

"Alice, Alice what do you see?" Jasper asked her. He got the pencil and pad off of the table and put them in her hand and on her lap. She drew James sitting on a bed with a file and a letter next to him. He was smiling. Then Alice started to draw the room in more detail. Shit.

"He's at my house." I told them.

"What!" They exclaimed.

"That's my mother's room, that's her bed." They looked at each other, before Alice whipped out her mobile phone.

"Pick up pick up." She muttered. "Esme! Yes we're fine. That's not what I'm calling about, yes we heard from them about ten thirty yesterday morning. But….. Esme that's what I am calling about. Were you with Elizabeth all day?" She nodded at whatever answer she got and I was digging my blunt nails into the seat cushion. Jasper reached behind him to put his hand on my shoulder. I relaxed and sat back on the seat.

"James is at their house. There are some documents that were in her room. There is a walk in wardrobe and on the top shelf there are boxes with documents. He got something from those. I need you to check which ones they are, or what boxes that James' scent is on, or is the strongest on. Alright, thankyou Esme." She hung up. "Esme is on her way back right now, Rosalie is going to stay with you mother. She has to work late today." I nodded.

"Your mother is going to be fine."

"I know Jasper, I'm just trying to remember what was in those boxes. There is stuff from Chicago in them, but that's just mostly old insurance policies, stuff from dad's job and tax files. I don't see how any of that would be useful to James."

"Maybe he thinks that that is where we are hiding you." Alice shrugged.

"Well than I guess that it's a good thing that we didn't go there." I laughed lightly.

"Yer."

At ten Esme called us again and said that everything up there had James scent on it, but that nothing really stood out. He had looked briefly at a box full of family letters and pictures. The scent was also on her bed and bedside table. I tried not to let that freak me out.

At one thirty, I was just about ready to scream, or throw the phone. I need to talk to her, or run or do something to release all of this pent up energy. I got up to start pacing, but as soon as I moved the phone started to ring, shocking me so much that I slipped on the run but caught myself on the couch. I was quite happy that I didn't hurt myself.

"Bella! What's been going on?" Alice asked excitedly.

"Oh great!" Jasper said.

"What, what's going on?" I asked, sitting next to him.

"They know where James went."

"Alright, great, we will see you soon." Alice said and my heart leapt to my throat.

"She's coming?" I asked Alice. She nodded and handed me the phone.

"Bella!"

"Edward! How are you?"

"I'm good, you're coming?"

"Yes, Alice will explain but I have got to go, I'm sorry but I'll talk to you soon."

"I love you."

"I love you too." The line then went dead.

"So she's coming back?" I asked Alice.

"Yes. They caught James at the airport, heading towards the gate that was heading to L.A.. The only problem is that there was a flight going Phoenix that was right next to that one. They don't know what flight he got onto. Rosalie is going to the airport at Seattle, where they are, and her and Emmett are going to go L.A To look for him but Bella and Carlisle are coming here. Just to be safe."

"What time does their flight get here?"

"Eight o'clock tonight. We will go to the airport to meet them, fly to the next possible destination that we can but spread the scent all round the terminal so that James won't know what flight that we got onto. Than from there we can catch a flight back to Forks."

"What about the car?" That was a mundane thing to worry about, but Carlisle's car was really nice.

"Carlisle will stay with us at the airport than drive the car home." I nodded.

At seven o'clock we left the hotel for the airport.

I was so excited, I missed my Bella! And she was so close. We parked at the airport and found our way to the main entrance. There was a board that declared when all of the flight arrived, boarded and departed. There was her flight, the eight o'clock from Seattle, the flight was right on time.

We made our way to gate 18, Bella's gate, and sat on the cool plastic chairs just next to the window. I was looking at the planes that were landing and taking off, trying to see hers when it came.

"I can't stand the small of the airport." Alice said. "Smells horrible, makes my nose burn." Jasper nodded from beside her.

"Do you want something to eat?" Alice asked me.

"Alright. What time is it?"

"We have ten minutes."

"Alright. Thankyou." We all stood up and went over to the airport bar/café that was just a few meters away. They went over to look at the wall sized window, just like the one at their house and I went over to the register to order the food. There wasn't anybody else close by, just the two café workers and they hadn't noticed us yet. I could still hear Jasper and Alice talking quietly. Their voices stopped suddenly and I looked over to see Alice, still. Jasper was leading her over to the couch gently and was about to pull something from the bag that she carried, probably a notepad and a pen or something, but I never got to see.

Something hard and cold slammed into me, I was about to fall but they had their stone cold arms around me. They picked me up and held me tightly against there chest. This wasn't one of the Cullen's, I could feel the difference.

James started to run thru the airport. He was running fast than I was used to, but not the fastest that I had gone. Jasper and Alice had probably noticed my absence by now, if Alice had come up from her vision.

Before I knew what was happening we were running thru the streets and I knew that they wouldn't be able to follow us now. James ran between the cars, thru alleyways and past houses and business.

"Where are we going?" I asked, hoping that Alice might see this moment and know the location.

"We are taking a visit to Aunt Caroline."

"She isn't there, she is on holiday."

"But Edward, her house is all that I need."

We ran for a few more minutes before James started to slow. James stopped running when we reached and alleyway but put arm over my shoulder.

"Be a good boy little Edward, you know that you can't run."

I struggled a little bit at first before walking with him to the house. There was bound to be a lighter there somewhere.

I almost chuckled at that last thought.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I like to play games, and you smell very good. How could I resist."

"I am Bella's singer, and she resists my blood."

"Really! Her singer, and she has kept you? How fascinating. Yes that will make all the better for this game of ours."

"Why?"

"Well, not only would I have killed you, but I would get the blood that she so desperately craves, but resists. Now, all of her resistance will be for nothing. If there was ever a doubt that she would come after me, now there is none." I stiffened, not just at the thought of James killing me but at the thought that Bella might just die too.

"Just leave her alone, you get your fun, you get your food, let things be James."

"No." We were at the house now and James opened the front door using the spare key that she kept under the eve. "Come on kid." James pushed me thru the door after I resisted for a little bit. James shoved me onto a chair. "Any last words Edward? I'll be sure to let them know?"

I was shocked, wasn't James rushing this a bit. "What, that's all, just 'what are your last words'?" Suddenly, I thought of another way to drag this out, incase Bella and the others were coming.

"What do you mean." James looked curious maybe even slightly frustrated. Did the hunter know that there was little time, that my family was coming to get me?

"Well, you know, there was this huge build up. Sure we have only been running from you for a few days but sitting in a hotel room for ages, well, this feels like so much longer. I expected some big dramatic event, some sort of extra way that you would prove that you won, you know? But this is all that you can come up with? What are your last words? Really?"

"Well what did you have in mind."

"I hadn't been thinking about that, I thought that we would win. But still, I expected something a bit better than whet you have got planned James. I know that they will never know about what you do here, unless Alice sees, but isn't this a little bit anticlimactic?" I frowned and shrugged. "But whatever."

James looked mad, I could tell that the tracker was trying to decide what to do. James knew that I needed to be killed soon but my words had got to him. James wanted to win, this was all just a game to him. James didn't like that I had come up with a better idea, for a human to out smart a vampire, that was like the ultimate shame for somebody like James.

"What, human, do you want me to make this painful for you?"

"No, but still." I shrugged again. "How did you find out about this place anyway?"

James stared at me.

"Come on, if you are going to kill me the least that you can do is tell me how you accomplished this." I smirked.

"I found the letter from your aunt on your mothers bedside table and the itinerary for your aunts flights on top of some box."

"Oh." Well that made a lot of sense.

"So what can I do to make this more dramatic." James started to talk, seemingly just random thoughts. "I could hurt you badly first. I could scare you. I could get a tape and film this, leave the tape here for them to watch. I could put the tape on top of you or on your body, maybe leave a little note from you or me on top. That could be fun." My blood ran cold, don't make Bella watch that, I Prayed.

"Well, first things first I guess."

"And that would be?"

James walked up to me, and from the look in my eyes I knew what he was going to do.

_Please don't let James break me to badly, Bella shouldn't have to see that. _I Prayed.

"You do smell very good, not usually my taste but very good. Alice smelled very good too, probably the best that I have ever smelt, but not my singer. She smelt very floral, somehow like your Bella but still different – lighter smells."

"So this is still about Alice?"

"Some of. This is fair really, they should not be fighting this. They get her, and I get the boy. They get the one that got away, and I get her new sisters new mate, the human. Why didn't they change you straight away."

"They want to make sure that this is what I want, we will probably wait till I graduate."

"They would have waited you mean." I just shrugged again.

"Do you want to be changed?"

"Yes."

"Hmmmm, I wonder…. No, If I were to change you than you would go running back to them, I would just be doing them a favor."

"What If I stayed with you?"

"But you wouldn't, I am not stupid Edward, I know that you would leave. But you have a very good mind, you would make a very good vampire. Too bad that we will never know."

I thought that Bella was close now, I didn't know how, I just knew.

"Now, where to start?" James licked his lips and grabbed my wrist. But James grabbed to tightly. I gritted my teeth against the shooting sensation that went up my arm when he tugged. "Did that hurt?" He punched my in the stomach. I gasped and chocked on the air that came flying from my lungs, I tried to bend over, as a reflex, but couldn't. "What about that one?" The tracker chuckled.

Than the door burst open, and Bella's unmistakable growl came thru. She ran next to me and latched her teeth onto James' arm. James shouted but she just put her hands on either side of her face and bit harder. With a metallic shriek, James' arm was ripped off. The hand was still attached to my wrist but Bella didn't help me get that off, she pushed me gently backwards and kicked James, who was still growling about the arm. She crouched defensively and suddenly she was being flanked be her brother and sister. Carlisle was next to me. He grabbed me and ran me outside to the park that was just up the street.

"Edward! Are You alright, what did James do?" He asked frantically, trying to get the arm off of me. He managed but there were red marks from where the hand had been and the wrist was already starting to swell.

"Not much, just the wrist and my stomach."

"What happened to your stomach, can I look?" Carlisle looked me straight in the eyes.

"Yes." I lifted up the white t-shirt that I was wearing. There was already a nasty bruise forming there. Carlisle went into doctor mode, gently poking and prodding until he was satisfied.

He saw the wince on my face and immediately apologized. "Sorry, but I need to make sure that there was no internal damage."

"Is there?" I asked him.

"No you seem to be fine, just a bruise. But that wrist, I think that you fractured that. We will have to get that checked at the hospital. Did you get the fake ID yet?"

"Yer, and a passport too."

"Do they say Cullen?"

"Yes." Carlisle must have heard the emotion in my voice because he looked up at me from my wrist and smiled gently.

"Human or not, that name is as much yours as mine."

I smiled so wide that my face hurt, I could feel the emotion swelling up in me. "Thankyou Carlisle." I muttered.

He laughed lightly. "That's alright. Here come the others, remember to tell Bella if you can't breathe."

"What?" But than I understood what he meant. Bella ran up to me and wrapped her arms round my torso so tightly that I couldn't actually breathe, and her body pressed against the bruise that had started to form in the center of my stomach. I wrapped my arms round her but after a few moments I had to tell her.

"Ahh Bella can't breathe." I gasped.

"Oh right, so sorry." She kissed me lightly instead and I smiled against her lips. "Are you alright?"

"I am alright."

She turned to look at Carlisle. "There is a bruise on his stomach and his wrist might be fractured, we will have to get that checked at the hospital."

She turned to me and put her cold hand over the bruise. "Thankyou." I sighed, enjoying the cold.

"What happened to James?" Jasper held up the bag that was over his shoulder. The bag was an old garbage bag, I had seen them in his backpack but hadn't asked.

"Want to see what a dead vampire looks like?"

"Jasper." Bella and Alice warned.

"What?"

"Why is that bag moving?" I asked.

"Oh shit!" Jasper turned and looked at the bag. "I gotta go and do this."

"Why is that bag moving though?"

"Well you know that we can be but back together?"

"Yes."

"Well, James' body is trying to get back together.."

"Eww."

"Exactly, so what hospital will you be at and I will meet you there."

Carlisle gave Jasper the address and the extra pieceof arm that had been attached to my wrist, than Bella picked me back up. We ran back to the airport and to the car. They drove me to the hospital in mostly silence, I didn't let go of Bella the whole time. She looked so upset, and I could tell that she had a lot that she needed to say to me, but she wanted to wait until we were alone. I just didn't know when that would be next.

Carlisle went back to doctor mode after we got to the hospital. We walked into the ER and up to the stunned reception nurse.

"My son," I smiled at the term. "hurt his wrist, we need to get it looked at."

"Of course sir." She said slowly. She handed him the clip board and he filled the information for me. There wasn't anybody else there so we got to go straight in. Carlisle told the next doctor about the fracture and, when the other doctor doubted him, told him that he too was a doctor.

"Oh." The other doctor had said. He had been pretty quiet since then. I didn't need a cast, but the doctor also gave me some ice for the bruise.

Just as the other doctor finished up, Jasper walked thru the door. Alice threw herself into his arms.

"Everything alright?" He asked after he had sat, putting his wife on his lap.

"Yer, just a fracture. I've had worse." I shrugged.

"Yer like almost drowning." Bella muttered.

"That wasn't my fault." I told her.

"You almost drowned." Carlisle asked.

"Long story, stupid bike, distracting birds." He started to laugh quietly.

"So how are we getting home, do we have any flights booked?" Jasper asked after we left the hospital. We were all standing at the car.

"There is a flight leaving in two hours, we could make that one." Alice said.

"Do you want to drive back Carlisle, or do you want one of us too?" Jasper asked.

"No I will, just give Esme my love."

"We will."

"So, to the airport?" Bella asked.

We nodded and got into the car. Carlisle drove us, he kept his speed reasonable compared to his children.

"We need to call Rosalie and Emmett to tell them that James isn't there." Bella said.

"They probably aren't even off of the plane yet." I snorted.

"Actually they just bordered." Alice giggled.

Opps.

"Can we call them and get them off?"

"No, the plane has pulled away, about to take off. They will spend the rest of the weekend there though; they will be back about two am on Monday morning, so that they can go to school." She told us, but directing that last part to Carlisle.

"Good."

At the airport the woman was more than accommodating to our needs, but didn't take her eyes off of Carlisle the whole time. Jasper kept his back to her and she couldn't see me behind Carlisle, he was taller than me, only just, but enough. We were waiting at the gate when I started to talk to Carlisle. There were no other humans within hearing range ( that is, human hearing range.) so I decided to ask him what had been bothering me for a while now.

"How old are you?"

"How old do you think I am?"

"Twenty three." He looked shocked.

"Not many people guess that part exactly right."

"Bella told me." From her spot next to me she started to laugh lightly.

"Oh, well I assume that you didn't mean that way anyway."

"No." I started to laugh lightly with her. She rested her head on my shoulder after we had started to calm.

"I was born in London, I am not quite sure of the exact date anymore, or the exact year either. Time wasn't kept as carefully for the common people back than." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. " I was born in the sixteen forties, or so I believe, just before Cromwell's rule though." My eyes widened.

Wow.

"Oh." I said, Carlisle just laughed at me, as did the others.

" I can show you in more detail when we get back to the house though."

"Show?"

"Painting and what not, have you never seen my office?"

"No, just the door." I smirked.

"Oh alright than." He rolled his eyes. "Well, I will show you when I get home."

"Alright, thankyou." He smiled back at me. The flight was called then and after the girls hugged him goodbye we boarded. There was barely anybody else on the plane. They made me eat the place food, which was surprisingly good, and Jasper got me to sleep. When I woke up we were just about to land. I still hadn't been able to talk to Bella. I was glad that after the four hour drive we would be able to be alone, not that I minded spending time with the family, I just knew that she need to talk to me, and that I needed her.

Esme was at the airport to pick us up embraced each one of us, including me. She just looked so happy to see us. By the time that we got home it was eight am. I had slept again on the car trip so I wasn't to tired by the time that we got home. I had some cereal with Bella sitting next to me in the kitchen as Esme leaned against one of the counters and talked to us. Jasper and Alice had been talking to us but eventually went upstairs to be together. When I was done I convinced Esme to let me clean my own dishes and than went upstairs to be with Bella. She let me lead her up the stairs to the third floor. I took us up to her room and closed the door behind us. I took off my shoes and she did the same. I laid her on the bed and laid next to her, wrapping my arms round her and burying my nose in her hair. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her nose into the hollow between my collarbones. I sighed at the feeling of having her with me again.

"Am I hurting the bruise" She asked me quietly, her voice muted by my chest.

"No, I'm fine." I said, and after a moments pause. "Are you?"

She looked up from my chest. "Are you serious? You just got attacked by a vampire – "

"Barley." I scoffed. This really didn't count.

"And yet you're asking of I am alright."

"Yes."

"Why."

"Because I know that something's wrong." I said seriously. She shut her eyes, but when she opened them they flashed with a new intensity.

"You got tracked by a vampire, said vampire managed to capture you from the hands of my siblings, that were literally sitting twenty meters away. You also get attacked by that vampire, and if you hadn't thought to distract James, you probably would have ended up dead. All because of me!"

"This isn't your fault!"

"How is it not! I took you to that game, I defended you to obviously!"

"Well what else could have happened."

"If we had of just told them that we were going to eat you or that we were going to change you soon, if I hadn't of growled like that, than maybe nothing would have happened."

I looked at her blankly. "Do you really believe that, James already held a grudge against all of you for getting Alice, that was part of why he tracked me. He was pissed that Alice got away, something about how this was only fair, you got the one that got away, but he got her new sisters mate."

She looked up at me, shocked. "How do you know that?"

"James told me."

"How did you manage to distract him?"

"Well I had been expecting something dramatic but all that he did was shove me on a chair and say 'any last words' so I said 'what is that it?' and went on some rant about how expected something more. He let me talk for like ten minutes, we started talk about what files he found at me mothers house."

"Oh, what was it?"

"My aunt's letter and the holiday itinerary."

"Letter?"

"The aunt that lives in Phoenix wrote to my mother and the letter had her address and said that we should meet up after she got back. She is holidaying somewhere in Ireland

"Well that makes sense."

I suddenly smirked.

"What?" She asked.

"Gunna be so awkward the next time that I see her." Bella rolled her eyes but at least she laughed a little bit. There was still sadness lingering in her eyes though.

"Bella,"

"You can say that this isn't my fault all that you want but – "

"But it isn't! If it's your fault, than it's my fault to."

"What!"

"Well If I didn't smell so good than maybe James wouldn't have decided to track me."

She stared at me blankly. " Are you seriously saying that this is your fault because you smell to good?"

"Yes."

"You can't help how you smell though."

"And you can't help that James wanted revenge."

"How about we just agree to disagree?"

"For now." I shrugged.


	10. Chapter 10 Her Story The Tracker

**Important AN concerning the updates****! I am so sorry about the lack of updates, but I have so many assignments, lack week I had more than I had subjects. I have less now and am more on top of them so I will be writing more!**

**Also, I about a month I will be going to Thailand with my friend fr twenty eight days, so I will have no computer or lap top. I will probably give you everything that I have brfore I go and then update as soon as I can after that, but I am so sorry that there will be nothing in that month. Thankyou so much for the support from my readers and reviewers, even if the amount of hits compared to review are huge :(. Anyways, on with the story.**

Bella Point Of View –

The game was going great, Edward seemed amazed at the speed and strength that we displayed when we were playing and we were all having so much fun, even Rosalie.

The nomads hadn't made an appearance and I had managed to relax play the game.

But then Alice had gasped, and I knew that something was changing, I knew that gasp, I knew that this wasn't good. This wasn't the '*gasp* Gucci has a new jacket, we are going shopping.' No this was the 'something is going wrong' gasp.

We all ran over to her and I could see that the others too knew that something was wrong.

"Alice, Alice what did you see?" Jasper put calming hands on her shoulders and bent at the knees so that he was closer to her eye level. If I wasn't so worried, I probably would have laughed at the comedy of the position.

"Oh." She gasped, breathless.

"What can you see?"

"I didn't see who it was before, I can't believe that I didn't see."

"The nomads?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes."

"Are they coming?"

"Yes."

"Who are they?" Rosalie asked.

"I just didn't see, oh, no, no, no." She started to shake her head.

I ran to Edwards side, needing my mate but also needing to protect him from the unidentified threat.

"Can I run with him?"

"No, they are too close, they could catch his scent." Alice told me.

"So what, they have no chance against the lot of us." Emmett, of course was always ready for a fight. He always wanted to take things further when he wrestled with Jasper but Esme constantly thought that they were going to rip each other to shreds so she stepped in and stopped the violence.

"We want to keep the peace for as long as we can, we don't want to start a fight." Carlisle said, as calm as ever, but I knew him well enough to know that he was stressed by the new revelation.

"So we just let him stay here!" They couldn't be serious.

"Yes, we can try to confuse them, we can stick together so that they don't know who the human is." Rosalie said.

"He's tan and bright green eyes and has a heartbeat, there is no chance that they will not know who the human is." I shouldn't have snapped at her but that really didn't make any sense.

"Well I was just trying to help." Rosalie said defensively.

"But are they thirsty?" Esme was clinging to Edward, she already saw him as another son, she had since I first brought him home. I think that she knew that we were meant to be together before even I did, just from the way that I spoke about him.

"There not thirsty, but they do know that Edward is a human. I can't see what is going to happen, but…." Oh no.

We started to talk so that Edward couldn't hear us, we didn't want to scare him.

"We could still try to run with him, Bella can carry him and we can all run round ya'" Jasper said quickly.

"I still don't think that that is a good idea, the risk that they start to hunt is to big." Esme groaned.

"But, still, what can be worse than leaving him here." I told them.

"I don't want Edward to stay here, now with them."

"Who are they Alice?" Jasper asked his wife.

"We are to late now anyway, we have to stay, they are almost here now."

"How could I have let this happen?" Edward put his arm on my cheek, calming me slightly, but I was still wound up.

"I am so sorry, I should have seen this sooner." Alice muttered. Jasper put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"This isn't your fault Alice, they didn't decide to come until they heard us playing."

"So we have no idea what they are going to do after they see Edward?" I asked them.

"No there are too many possibilities, to many things that could influence their decisions."

The others form a loose protective circle around me and Edward, I knew that he wanted to speak to me know though, but we didn't have too much time left.

"The others are coming?" The look in his emerald eyes told me that he already knew the answer to that question.

"Yes, I'm sorry, so sorry." He ran his fingers thru my hair.

"Everything will be alright."

"You can't know that."

I could hear them now, the light footsteps running thru the forest. We all turned to the west. The family formed a protective triangle against me and Edward. Carlisle, the leader, was at the front, flanked by the two best fighters of our family, and the two scariest looking. There mates stood behind them and Esme stood on Edwards other side.

Then they emerged from the forest and I tensed, realizing who they where. I could see that Alice, Jasper and Emmett stiffened, I did too. This explained everything, this was why Alice wouldn't tell us who she had seen, who she was so scared, why she knew that running would be a bad idea because they would catch the scent.

James was back, his scarlet eyes dodging from Edwards eyes to hid chest, as if he could see the heart beat from where he was. James was a tracker and I knew that he thought that something was going on. He knew that we didn't hunt humans like they did, he could tell from our eyes that we still lived that way, so there had to be another reason that Edward was here. Victoria was as wild as ever, and Laurent was still taking the place of the coven leader. That charade was going to get old soon, I wondered briefly how long they had been doing that.

They were all looking at Edward and I could see the hunger flare up in James' eyes.

That wasn't good.

I automatically took a protective stance in front of him, but not an obvious one. Alice was scared of James, we could tell that, and Jasper reached back to take her hand. The others were catching on to out protective and angry stances, so they too straightened up. They weren't there the last time, so they didn't know what James looked like, but they knew the story.

James could tell what our stances meant, who knew that we were being protective, and he knew who, for the most part, we were protecting. He smiled at Edward pleasantly, then me, and then Alice, and then back to Edward. And just like that I knew what he had planned. It took everything that I had not to throw Edward on my back right now and to run, run far away and protect him so that they would never get the chance to help him.

"Hello." Laurent said, still cautious. "My name is Laurent, and these are James and Victoria."

"I am Carlisle, and this is my family. Jasper, Emmett, Alice, Rosalie, Edward, Esme and Bella."

"Yes, we are already familiar with a few members of your……..'family'." Laurent said. Everybody looked at Jasper, Emmett, Alice and I, curious as to how we had met.

Alice cleared her throat, and I felt Jasper push courage to us.

"Yer, James is the one that knew who I was when I was a human, he was the one that gave us those leads." Alice said.

"I found that you had some quite persuasive techniques." James's eyes flickered between Jasper and Emmett. Obviously, the tracker was remembering how we had gotten all of the necessary information from him the last time.

"We mean no harm by being here, we were simply passing through." Laurent said again, the vampire was worried.

"We would appreciate it if you stopped hunting here, we need to remain inconspicuous." Carlisle said.

"Oh yes, I had forgotten about that. You keep a permanent residency here, is that right?"

"Yes."

"How very interesting, this lifestyle that you choose for yourself." James mused, is personality for being in charge fighting for dominance, especially now that half of the coven knew the game that they were playing, and the one that they were about to start to play.

"It works for us." Carlisle said with a calm smile on his face.

"We prefer this life style to the alternative." Esme said, supporting her husband.

Victoria rolled her eyes. "You have no idea what you're missing."

""I have got to ask," Laurent said, seeming to not want to start a fight. He never did, he didn't like to fight especially when they were out numbered. "Your eyes are still that golden colour, proving that you still live off the animal diet, but yet you have brought a snack to the game?"

I growled at the insinuation of my mate, my Edward, as nothing more than a meal, my protective instincts rose up.

"The boy is not food." Alice said.

"But the boy is a human!" Victoria thought that all humans were scum, nothing more than cattle.

"And what?" Emmett said.

"You told that human about us? That is breaking the rules. You have to kill him now." Laurent informed us, like we had no idea what the rules were.

"Or change him, obviously." Jasper said.

"He does smell very nice, doesn't he?" James said. I stiffened, as did my family and Laurent. Laurent knew what was coming, and Jasper, Alice, Emmett and I all thought that we knew. Alice gasped. And I knew then.

"You leave him alone!" She screamed at them. "Edward isn't a toy!"

"Everything is fairer this way Alice sweetheart, they get you, but I get the boy." We growled, and I knew that we had to leave, now. I threw Edward on my back and ran towards the forest. Esme and Alice sprinted after me, ready to protect me and my mate if need be.

The house came into view and I knew that the others must have stopped James, Victoria and Laurent because I couldn't hear anybody behind me.

I put Edward on the floor when we got back to the house, immediately starting to pace.

"I'm so, I'm so, so sorry."

"Bella, Bella." He put his hands on my arms and forced me to look at, not that I put up that much of a struggle. "Everything will be alright."

"What will he do now?" Esme asked Alice. Her eyes went blank for a few moments before she came back too.

"He's going to track him." I hissed at the conformation.

"What does that mean?" Edward asked them. The poor boy, I can't believe that I put him thru this. He has no idea what I am putting him thru, no idea what I have gotten him involved in. But still, I needed him. I leaned my head on his chest and he wrapped his warm arm around me. I could feel his heat seeping into me, warming me more than a hot bath ever could. I sighed quietly, feeling myself relax despite the tense atmosphere.

I couldn't answer him, but I hoped that somebody else would.

I could hear the others coming now, could get their scent on the wind. But there was something else, something extra.

_Laurent._

I growled, stepping forward and putting Edward behind my back, before stepping forward in a defensive crouch, desperate to protect him.

"Relax Bella, Laurent is going to help us." Carlisle said calmingly, he put a calming hand on my shoulder, sometimes he was as good as Jasper. He went over and help into Esme, obviously Carlisle didn't trust Laurent yet either. I stood up anyways, and melted into Edward's embrace, savoring his soft human lips against my skin.

"I want no part of this," Laurent began. "I have grown sick of James and his games, and I am intrigued but this lifestyle that you have made, are there any others like you?"

"UP in Denali." Carlisle said.

"Thankyou. But you need to be careful of James, he is lethal. His tracking abilities are unparallel and he never gives up."

"We already knew that." Emmett sneered, obviously remembering.

"I do apologies for what happened the last time that we met, but I do want you to know that I wasn't there when James found you Alice, and neither was Victoria." Laurent nodded at Alice and Jasper stood in front of her, snarling. They remembered too, as if we could ever forget. They had tracked us for hours before we turned round and ambushed them.

"You have a decision to make, either fight with us or we will have to ask you to leave the area." Carlisle said.

Laurent nodded. "I won't fight against him, as I said, I want no part of this disagreement." He ran from the house and towards the forest.

"Fight?" Edward asked. I knew that he would be worried about us, Edward should be worried about the fact that he is being tracked by a vampire, not us.

"What happened after we left?" I asked them.

"James tried to follow but Emmett stopped him. Victoria pounced on Rosalie so Emmett let go of James and ran over to help Rosalie." I just realized that her hair had twigs in it and she had dirt smeared on her face. That wasn't going to help her liking of me. "So then James got away and we all had Victoria. She started to scream at us, telling us that they would get Edward. She started to tell us that they would always win and that they would kill anybody that tried to stop them." Jasper said.

"Then what?" Esme asked them. Jas, Emmett, Rosalie and Carlisle looked at Edward, they were tense and I immediately thought of the worst, had they already started?

"Is that smoke?" Edward asked them. Alice, Esme and I turned to the window, and sure enough, the tell tale purple smoke that a dying vampire makes was rising up in the sky. I was glad that we couldn't smell that from here.

"You didn't!" Esme gasped.

Carlisle pulled her tighter to him.

"Sorry." He seemed distraught, He hated killing people.

"The smoke is from Victoria, we killed her." He said grimly. I felt my eyes widen.

"Oh." I looked at Edward, his eyes wide and filled with emotions. Was that…. A hint of…..joy?

"I get it." Jasper said, and I made a note to ask my brother about that later.

"But you guys could get hurt because of this." Edward said worriedly. I huffed, irritated that my mate seemed to have no sense of self preservation.

"That's not seriously what you are worrying about!"

"Yes?"

"Edward this is more dangerous for you than it is for us, James is the reason that I had to get changed." Alice said meekly. Jasper sat on the couch and pulled her onto his lap.

"What?"

"When I was at that asylum, there was a vampire that worked there. He became fond of me but somehow, James caught my scent. He tried to hunt and track me, _exactly_ what he is doing to you, and the other vampire changed me. But James got to him before I woke up and James killed the other man. That's why I was all alone when I woke up."

"Oh. So that's why you got all tense when they come into view?"

"You noticed that?" Jasper asked, I felt Edward nod. "Observant."

'Isn't he.' I thought.

"But what do we do now? If James is tracking us, he is going to be even more pissed now that we killed his mate." _Not that James seemed to ever care to much about Victoria._

"Well, if James is tracking Edward, than we hide Edward and we track James." Jasper said simply.

"Hide him where?"

"Here."

"But James will be able to tell where we live. James can track our scent." I was frustrated, that was an obvious answer.

"Won't he be able to track my scent to my house?" Edward asked. I tensed, oh shit. Elizabeth, I hadn't even thought of her 0 this just complicated things.

"I hadn't thought about her." I told them quietly.

Jasper buried his head in Alice's hair, who was looking through the future. Emmett started to pace, and Rosalie looked pissed. Esme and Carlisle stood still, until Carlisle ran his fingers threw his gold coloured hair and Esme looked over at us.

"We split up into groups, two or three. A party to protect Edward, one for his mother and on to hunt James." Jasper said.

"I'm on the hunting team." Emmett was obviously looking forward to the now unavoidable fight.

"Me, Emmett and Rosalie are our best fighters, so we should each be on one of the teams." Jasper said. I had never been more thankful for his strategic mind.

"Rosalie and I can take care of Elizabeth, if you want." Esme said, se didn't like that other people had to be involved with this, Elizabeth didn't even know what we were.

"Emmett, Carlisle and I can hunt." I said, surprising the family and my mate, I usually avoided fighting unless necessary.

"You don't want to stay with him?" Rosalie asked smugly, but still shocked. That bitch, she had to know the real reason.

"Of course I do, but the tracker will think that I would stay with Edward. James saw how I reacted to the threat at the field." They were all silent for a moment but the knew that I was right. I could see the understanding dawn in Rosalie's eyes and she nodded before standing still again. Maybe she hadn't known before, well I thought that that was obvious.

"She's right." Jasper said thoughtfully. "So Alice and I will take him somewhere.

"Somewhere that vampires wouldn't go." Carlisle said.

"Somewhere sunny." I said.

"Arizona." Alice said.

"Arizona?"

"Yes, Arizona. We can stay at a hotel there, I don't see anything happening there, not now at least. But we can't stay here. James is tracking the area, looking for his scent."

"Rose, Esme can you to Edward's house now." Jasper said sternly.

They kissed their mates before they left. Esme stopped just before she left and typed in a few numbers to the key pad on the wall. Metal shutters started to cover the glass wall. I looked at them, shocked.

Wow.

"I didn't even know that we had those, did you guys know that we had those?" Emmett asked, shocked. The others all shook their head and looked at Esme, who shrugged and said –

"Just to be careful."

How did I not see when they were installing those?

"Bella, go upstairs and pack a bag, plus get Edward's bag" I ran up to my room, quickly packing a bag with clothes and my phone. I grabbed Edward's bad and was back next to him all in a matter of seconds, still trying to zip up the bag. Edward grabbed his bag off of my shoulder and I smiled up at him.

"Thankyou."

"We can go and get our bags now." Alice said quietly. They all followed her up the grand staircase. As soon as they were upstairs I dropped the bag, pushed Edward's off of his shoulder and put my hands on his soft face. I warned him with my eyes to tell me if I hurt him. He started to inch closer to me and I didn't want to wait anymore. I crashed my lips to his and inhaled his amazing scent, ignoring the burn in my throat and just concentration on his taste, the feel of him against me, on my lips. I pulled him even closer, loving the feeling of him. There was a new urgency, coming not just from me but from him also. I was scared, who knew when I would see him next, who knew what would happen. Would he stay safe? Would he be alright? There were a thousand different possibilities.

I could feel his heart hammering against the both of out chests, it made me feel alive again.

I pulled away after I knew that he would need to breath, and I found myself breathless as well. I was always amazed that he managed to make me be like this, I didn't need to breathe.

"You stay safe, alright? Do whatever Jazz and Alice tell you to do, alright?"

"Alright." He buried his head in my hair, breathing in my scent. I loved the feeling of him against me, holding me as tight as he could, I couldn't wait until he was a vampire like me, so that he could hold me tight with his newborn strength. But this was good too, shit, this was perfect.

"Do I have to be away from you?"

"That's the only way that makes sense."

"I know." I heard me mate sighed.

"Than why….?" I trailed off, laughing lightly.

"You can't blame a guy for trying can you?"

"I guess not." I nuzzled my face into his neck.

"What if you guys get hurt?"

"We wont, there are to many of us, plus, you just need to worry about yourself."

"Because that's so easy to do." He muttered, I could almost hear the smirk.

He pulled me even closer, again.

"Come on guys, we need to go now." Jasper said, his voice softer than it had been before. I was startled, I hadn't even heard them come back.

"And can you swap your jacket for one of the ones in the bag Edward, we need to confuse the scent for as long as we can." Carlisle told him. Edward took off his jacket and I put it on, Carlisle probably would be a better fit but I wanted to keep he scent with me. Jasper and Edward shared a look that I didn't understand but Jasper smirked.

"Thankyou, you three will need to take the Mercedes, you will need the tint if you are going south. The thereof us will take the Jeep." I looked at Emmett's bag, guessing that had had more lighter fluid and what not in it.

"Let's go and get ourselves some vampire." Emmett smirked. He really was just like a child – to Emmett, this was just a game, but more so fun as apposed to competition. I picked up Edward and ran towards the garage door with the family. He threw me a questioning glance.

"We don't want anybody to catch your scent, anymore than they will anyways."

He opened the back door and sat in the car, the other two were already ready and had started the car.

"I love you." I kissed him again before I closed the door. They drove away and I already wanted to be back in Edward's arms.

"Let's go lover girl!" Emmett hollered and I rolled my eyes but smirked. I had been spending all of my time with Edward and, not that I regretted that, I was starting to miss my family.

"Sir yes Sir!" I saluted.

We started to run west, the way that Alice had instructed them to go. I made sure to rub the jacket against different trees and ferns to make sure that the tracker caught the scent. We had been. We had been running inland for about three hours, starting to head north about a half hour ago, when I heard somebody behind us.

"Do you guys hear that?" I asked them.

"Yes, alright here's the plan. Emmett go to the left, I'll go to the right Bella you keep running, if he gets close enough we attack. Alright?" Carlisle said. We nodded. They ran off in their assigned directions and I pushed my legs further. After a while I heard a growl from behind me and turned back, sprinting towards my brother I quickly caught up to Carlisle, who had no idea what was happening either but told me to run ahead.

I nodded and pumped my legs further, harder. I quickly caught up to my brother, who was muttered a stream of profanities under his breath.

"Em, what happened?"

"I almost had him, I was so friggin close but that son of a bitch is fast than me."

I nodded, "It's alright, but I'll see if I can catch up." I dashed forward, catching the scent and heading further north. I followed for another hour, hearing my brother and father some way behind me, they were only in my range every now and again, I really had to strain to hear them.

I ran until I reached a small town.

"Shit." James could be anywhere, the town was small but there was enough human scent around, even if it was midnight.

I started to go thru the town anyway, tracing his scent to the bus stop, that was where the trail stopped.

"Shit."

I called the others and told them where I was, we met up about ten minutes later.

"Any luck?" Carlisle said.

"No, this was where the trail stopped."

There were only a few bus routes and at this time, we had only missed the but by ten minutes. Twenty minutes now that I had waited for the other two. We tracked the rout and caught the scent again at the next town over. I was getting frustrated, I just didn't have the patience for tracking.

But just when I thought that things wouldn't get worse, the rain started.

"I can't stand this! Why do we keep letting James get away!"

"James is a trained tracker, we never track anything apart from the animals that we hunt – what do you expect?" Carlisle sighed.

"Come on, lets get going." I muttered. We followed the scent for a few hours, still just running thru the forest but the scent was becoming lighter.

We tracked James all thru the morning, talking quietly but not diving into anything important, we wanted to make sure that we could hear James if we got close enough. The scent was so weak, getting stronger in some parts. But we kept on running, Emmett didn't take loosing well and was determined to get James.

The rain started to stop about five and we finally caught a strong scent. We tracked the scent thru a town again almost getting lost a few times but eventually James ran thru the other exit and looped back to the other side of town, the side the we came from. James started to more or less follow the exact same rout that we had come here on, sometimes crossing paths with our old scent.

At ten o'clock, we were a few miles away from Montesano. There had been more rain here and the precipitation had just stopped, so the scent was weak again, as if the human scent didn't dilute James' enough. Were walking thru the city at a human pace because the area had become heavily populated, but followed the scent back to the forest when Emmett made a suggestion that I could have kissed him for.

"We should call the others and see how they are going."

I nodded enthusiastically and got my phone. "I'll do Jasper, Edward and Alice."

The two men chuckled. "That's what we thought." Carlisle thought, I stuck my tongue out at them.

"Bella!" Alice's thrilling voice rang thru the phone.

"Hey Alice! Where are you guys?"

"Just over halfway. We will be there at about 8:40 pm."

"Alright than, great."

"So not much luck?"

"No, the rain is just making things so much more difficult." I tried not to sound too frustrated, but she understood.

"I know Bella but everything will be fine."

"Have you seen anything?"

"No, nothing set, nobody has made any decisions."

"So you don't see Edward….dying?" I said quietly, the other two looked at me with sympathy.

"No Bella, but I just know that everything will be great, trust me."

"I will Alice, is Edward there?"

"I'll just wake him up."

"Oh don't worry, I will just call back later." I hurried, not wanting her to wake him up.

"I promised him that I would so I will anyways."

"Alright." I sighed, not really unhappy. "Oh just wait!"

"Yer?"

"Can you ask Jasper something for me?"

"What?" She asked curiously.

"When you told Edward that you had killed Victoria, he looked happy and Jasper said 'I get it', what did that mean?" I asked them

I could hear Jasper talk from where he was sitting. "He was getting all emotional that we cared enough to kill somebody for him, he wasn't exactly happy that she was dead, just that we cared enough."

"Oh. Well that is actually kind of sweet." I giggled.

"I will get him up now." Alice laughed.

I could hear them again, Edwards groggy voice saying "What?" Jasper must have put him to sleep.

"Are you alright? You were starting to make funny noises again. I swear that you almost strangled yourself with that seatbelt like two hours ago." Alice asked. That wasn't good, what was he dreaming about?

"I am alright, thankyou for waking me up though."

" That's alright, but Bella is on the phone too." I heard Edward scramble for the phone before his excited voice rang.

"Bella!"

"Edward! Are you alright?" I was so happy to hear his voice again.

"I'm fine Love, what about you?"

"We're alright, we almost got James a few hours ago but We lost him, we have no idea now."

"Where are you?"

"We led him inland and than north, were just in some forest now, we are near Montesano now."

"I miss you." He said quietly, if only he knew.

"I miss you too Edward, I love you, even if I have put you thru all of this."

"Bella this isn't your fault." Edward sounded frustrated.

"I just shouldn't have taken you to that game."

"It was fun though."

"Until we got ambushed by bloodthirsty vampires."

"Yer well, up until that bit."

"Guys I got the scent! Over this way, it's so much stronger than the other scent!" YES! I started to run towards where Emmett was, racing forward until I got to the scent, he was right.

"I have got to go Edward, Emmett just got James' scent."

"Alright, bye, be safe."

"I love you."

I could hear Carlisle telling Esme the same thing that I had juts told Edward and he ran to catch up to us.

We ran for hours still following the scent. James didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular, just trying to get away from us. We got close another few times but every time that we got too close he would go to a city or jump into a lake or something like that. But around midnight, James started to run north east, back towards Forks.

"Do you think that that is where James is really headed or that he is just running without direction?" Emmett asked.

"No, he would have to know." Carlisle said.

"Does he think that Edward is still there? I mean, he as to know by know that we don't have Edward, the scent has faded off the jacket and he went back over our scent ages ago." I told them, Carlisle just shrugged.

Oh Friday morning, we got the call.

"Esme! How are you?" I cried. Carlisle's head snapped towards me hopefully, his face lighting up like a little kid on Christmas. I smiled at his hidden little boyish nature.

"I'm just fine Bella dear, but there's been a problem."

"What's wrong?"

"James was at Edward's house."

"What!" We all exclaimed.

"He just looked around some boxes and her bedside table. The scent was also on her bed." That was kind of weird, what was he doing on her bed.

"Do you know what he looked at?"

"Just some files, a box with old family pictures and a tax return, that's all."

"Maybe he thinks that we are going to Chicago."

"Maybe."

"How long ago was he there?"

"Well Alice got the vision at nine twenty and when I got to the house at twenty to ten, James was gone."

"What time is it?" I asked the boys.

"Quarter past ten." I nodded my thankyou to Carlisle.

"We are an hour away, will you be there?"

"Yes, I will see you soon."

"Bye, mum." I hung up.

"To Forks!" Emmett exclaimed and I giggled.

We took off at a run and by quarter past 11 we were there. Carlisle ran to Esme straight away and swept her up in his embrace, kissing her senseless. I smiled at there affection before I turned away, embarrassed.

"Seriously you two, get a room." Emmett groaned.

"Naww, Emmy miss Rosie?" I asked sweetly.

"Naww, Bella likes to make fun of everybody just because she isn't getting any." Emmett retorted, and I knew that if I were human that I would be blushing.

"Hey!"

"Seriously Bella, just go and make that boy a man!"

Carlisle decided that now was the time to interrupt the conversation so that we didn't start to fight. "Anyway we should probably get going, we need to get to James."

"If he saw the Chicago files he probably thinks that we took Edward there, maybe." I said.

"So we run to the airport." Carlisle shrugged.

"Alright, good, lets get going." The three of us gave Esme a hug. We sprinted off towards Seattle, quickly catching the trackers scent, James was getting sloppy.

We were right. James went to the airport and we followed started to follow his scent.

"Look I can see James, right there!" Emmett pointed to the security gates, and he was right, just behind then, obviously just been checked, James was striding away. The tracker turned as soon as he heard Emmett's voice, looking started that we had managed to catch up.

The tracker started to sprint, at a human pace, and we ran to follow him.

"Excuse me, stop right there." The airport security man said. Shit.

"I just need to go get that man." I told the security guard.

"Well you will have to wait just like everybody else. Please go to the end of the line."

"But- "

"Ma'am please."

"Please." I said quietly, inching towards the guard. I let loose the full power of my eyes on him, and the poor human looked startled. "I just need to go and talk to that guy."

"Alright, I will just search you first." Emmett and I gave our bags to Carlisle who decided to stay because a) nothing too bad could happen with James if we where with the humans, and if something did happen we had our phones and b) there was lighter fluid in the bag. We checked and passed, the man started to use the swap on me but was lingering. Emmett glared at the man and I was quickly let go. We quickly started to run and follow James' scent. The scent stopped at a gate, there was nobody there.

"Alright, what flight was just here?" Emmett asked. I led him over to the board and we looked at the different gates and times.

"Alright, gate seventeen to L.A., just bordered. " Emmett said.

"But look at that, " I said. "Gate eighteen, to Phoenix."

"What gate is his scent strongest at?"

I walked over to the gates, frowning at the almost even scent.

"Pretty much even, come on, we have got to get back to Carlisle, we have got to make the next flight."

"Lets go and get Carlisle."

We ran back to Carlisle, ignoring the looks that the humans and the staff gave to us.

Carlisle was waiting for us outside of the security machines with Emmett's huge bag over his shoulder and the two little ones in his hands. He was looking curiously at a woman with a screaming baby, she was basically ignoring the poor child. I gave her a strange look as I ran past her.

"What did you find?"

"We tracked his scent to two gates…."

"Well where did the gates go to?"

"L.A.." Emmett said.

"Well then lets go book flights to go there." Carlisle shrugged.

"But the gates right next to that gate left just after, and they were going to Phoenix, where Edward is."

"Oh." Carlisle said. He frowned. "We need another person. Call Rosalie and get her to come up. You and Rosalie can go to L.A.," He nodded at Emmett, who nodded to him. "then Bella and I can go to Phoenix." I nodded.

"Lets go get the tickets, Em can you call Rosalie?"

"Course." He smiled at me, any chance to speak to his wife would make Emmett happy.

We walked up to the ticket booth and I could hear Emmett speaking to Rosalie, who was going to start running now, but was making sure to complain about having to hunt James. But I knew Rosalie, she was probably happy that she got to do something else beside protecting Edward's mother.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The woman manning the ticket counter asked me, before she flickered her eyes to the two men behind me, Emmett grinning his dimpled smile talking to his wife and Carlisle getting out our wallets with out ID's. I could hear her heart stutter and then start to beat faster. Emmett smirked at her, I just rolled my eyes.

"I need two tickets on your next flight to L.A., and then two tickets on your next flight to Phoenix." I told her.

"umm,…."

"Hello?" I started to wave my hand in front of her, did she not know anything about professionalism?

"Right, sorry miss, what did you need?"

"I need two tickets on your next flight to L.A., and then two tickets on your next flight to Phoenix."

"Of course ma'am, what are the names?"

"Rosalie and Emmett Cullen to L.A., and Bella and Carlisle Cullen to Phoenix."

"Do you have identification?"

"Not for Rosalie, but for the other three." The woman nodded and typed onto her keyboard. We showed her our ID's and paid for the tickets. We went to line back up at security, but I was getting edgy again. I needed my Edward.

"Alright, I am going to call the other's, tell them that we are coming."

Emmett just rolled his eyes and nodded, Carlisle patted my shoulder.

"What time is it?" Emmett asked.

"One thirty." I replied.

"Bella! What's been going on?" Alice's voice came thru the phone.

"Hey Alice! We're all good. We've tracked James to the air port. James was heading to a flight that went to L.A., but the gate next to that one went to Phoenix and the both left at pretty much the same time. We don't know what flight he got on to so Rose is coming, her and Emmett are going to go to L.A. and me and Carlisle are going to come and get you guys. The plane will get there about eight. Alright?" I paused. "But can I still talk to Edward, please?"

"Alright, great, we will see you soon."

"She's coming?" I could hear Edward ask.

"Bella!"

"Edward! How are you?"

"I'm good, you're coming?"

"Yes, Alice will explain but I have got to go, I'm sorry but I'll talk to you soon." It was almost our turn to go thru the security, the man stared at me, confused as to why I was running thru the airport time and time again.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

We waited for two hours before Rosalie got there, she gave Carlisle and I a swift nod before letting Emmett sweep her up in his embrace. We didn't get much conversation from them after they were together again. Whilst PDA wasn't quite my thing, seeing them so happy together made me miss Edward more then ever. I sighed wistfully. Carlisle seemed to know what I was thinking.

He wrapped an arm round my shoulder and let me lean against him.

"I miss Edward."

"I know that you do sweetheart but in about….four and a half hours you will see him again. Actually the flight should be announced any second now." Just on cue, the airport staff announced the flight. I jumped up from my seat and waved goodbye to my brother and sister, before dashing towards the stewardess and handing over my ticket.

She wished me a good flight and then practically undressed my dad with her eyes. After she slowly handed him back his ticket I grabbed his hand, muttering under my breath about how you couldn't take this guy anywhere. Carlisle just laughed.

"Come on Carlisle, lets go lets go!" I was skipping up the aisle, I was so happy!

"Patience Bella, you will see Edward soon."

"Not soon enough."

Carlisle followed m quickened pace to the gate, but when I looked round, all that I could see was a distressed looking Alice.

"Alice, what happened?" Carlisle asked her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"We were right over there and then I had a vision, so Jasper started to take care of me but neither of us caught James' scent. Jasper thought that he heard something but when he looked over Edward as already gone. I left the vision then, I saw James with Edward." She said quietly. I stood staring at her, stunned. James had gotten my mate, my mate! Right from under the nose of my sister and brother! I had to suppress the rage, not just at James, Alice and Jasper, but at me too. I never should have let this happen.

"Bella, I am so, so sorry – "

"It's fine Alice, but we need to go and get Edward, where is Jasper?"

"Gone to find them."

"Do you know where to go?"

"Yes, fifty-eighth street, number twenty one."

We start to run towards the exit, we started to go at a vampire speed after we were away from the humans. I felt like I couldn't go fast enough, I got hit with a murky memory, something from when I was a human. I was trying to run, the sun was bearing down on my and I was starting to sweat in the long dress. I fell and scraped my hands and put a little hole on the knee of the dress, I felt like I couldn't run fast enough, like I was running thru wet sand.

Frustrated, I pushed my legs further, following the scent, not just James' but Jasper's too. We ran thru the streets, dogging the cars that we could break by running into them and thru the alleyways. I went to turn left at one street, where James' scent had gotten lighter, before Alice's voice called to me.

"Don't go that way! Jasper went the wrong way! Turn right!" I turned around and started to run right, the right way, and caught the scent again, so much stronger than before.

"Jasper is coming back this way now." Alice called again.

"Now, where to start?" I could faintly hear James' voice, the house was within my viewing range now. I heard a faint crack, I was so close. "Did that hurt?" The sound of stone hitting the soft flesh of a human. "What about that one?" The tracker chuckled.

I burst the door open, my growl filling the air and Edward's scent filling my senses. I took in the sight before my, Edward face twisted in pain before he looked up at me, joy lighting up his features, James grabbing his wrist hard, too hard for a human to handle without damage. I darted over, latching my teeth into James. I could hear him growl, hear Edward's heartbeat quicken. James started to realize what was happening and I knew that he would start to fight. I out my hands on either side of my face and ripped, the arm disjointing itself with a metallic shriek. I kicked James backwards and gently pushed Edward behind me, wanting him away from the danger. I crouched, ready to attack when suddenly Jas and Alice were next to me.

Carlisle got Edward, taking my mate form the house and to somewhere safe. The three of us growled and James stood up. James started to head for the back door but Jasper started to run for him, tackling James to the ground and wrapping off the rest of his arm.

"That is for my wife." I heard him mutter.

Alice darted over and ripped off the other one and I started to take off his legs, starting at the knees and then ripping off where they met at the hips. Alice took off the head and Jasper started to tear up the torso.

"do you have bags or anything like that in your bag?" I asked them.

"Yes, garbage bag."

I went and got them and together we put what was left of James into the bag, making sure not to leave anything behind. We went to straighten up the furniture, but I got distracted.

There was a photo on the mantle, Edward would have been about thirteen, with his parents standing next to him. They were all smiling and looking happy. Edward Sr. had his arm wrapped round Elizabeth's waist, she was leaning her head against his shoulder. My Edward was leaning against a chair and smiling his crooked smile at the camera. He looked so much younger, his face so much more childish, with a tanner face and a light flush on his cheeks. His hair was a bit shorter and he wasn't as tall. They were all dressed formally, at a wedding probably. He looked amazing in a tux and I was quickly becoming convinced to take the guy to prom, simply to see him in one.

So sexy, I almost giggled at my teenage thoughts.

"Naww, Isn't he pretty.." Alice giggled from next to me.

"Naww, why don't we go get him." Jasper said blankly.

"Right!" I started to run back towards the door, but stopped when I got there. "And thankyou guys, for all of this, for taking care of him and for helping me with this."

"No problem sis." Alice said.

"Yer, that is what families are for." Jasper said, I grinned at the both of them

We followed the scent to the park just up the road, Carlisle and Edward were standing in the middle of the field. They both looked towards us as was ran towards them. As soon as I could, I wrapped Edward up in my arms and held him tightly, but hopefully not to tightly. It took everything that I had not to just crush him to my chest. He wrapped his soft arms around me and buried his head in my hair, seemingly unconsciously.

"Ahh Bella can't breathe." Edward said breathlessly after a few moments.

"Oh right, so sorry." I kissed him lightly, still needing to feel him. I felt him smile against my lips and knew that he couldn't be to hurt. "Are you alright?"

"I am alright."

I didn't fully believe Edward, I had heard the crack and the sound of James hitting my mate. I turned to Carlisle, knowing that he would tell me the truth. "There is a bruise on his stomach and his wrist might be fractured, we will have to get that checked at the hospital."

I had to restrain myself from hissing, but found comfort that nothing was broken. Part of me wanted to rip that bag off of Jasper's shoulder and put James back together again, just so that I could rip the basted apart again. How dare James hurt my Edward! I turned around and put my cold hand on his stomach, hoping that the cold would help reduce the swelling and that he would find some comfort. "Thankyou." He sighed.

"What happened to James?" Jasper held up the bag that was over his shoulder. Edward looked at the bag curiously.

"Want to see what a dead vampire looks like?"

"Jasper." Alice and I warned my brother, I swear if Jas let Edward see…..

"What?"

"Why is that bag moving?" Edwards voice made me break eye contact with Jas and turn my eyes to the bag. The plastic was rustling, obviously James was trying to put himself back together again.

"Oh shit!" Jasper turned and looked at the bag. "I gotta go and do this."

"Why is that bag moving though?" Edward was persistent if anything.

"Well you know that we can be but back together?"

"Yes."

"Well, James' body is trying to get back together.."

"Eww." Edward's face was stricken. Was I to laugh, or protect him from my brothers words?

"Exactly, so what hospital will you be at and I will meet you there."

Carlisle gave Jasper the address and we want back to the airport, and then the hospital. I savored Edward's warmth, almost moaning at the pleasure that his body next to mine bought me.

I still couldn't believe that I had put Edward thru all of this, I never should have taken Edward to the baseball game, I should have run when Alice got the first vision. I could feel Edward studying my face, obviously he knew that I needed to speak to him, that I wanted to be with him, hopefully in the seclusion of our rooms, wrapped up in one other another. Not sexually of course, I knew that I could not do that, not yet at least. I just wanted to hold him close to me, and to be held close to him in return.

Carlisle marched up to the desk of the hospital and effectively dazzled the nurse there.

"My son hurt his wrist, we need to get it looked at." I could see Edward smile from the corner of my eye, I knew that he loved being acknowledged as a part of our family, was Edward smiling because Carlisle had called him son? Esme and Carlisle had thought of him as their son before they even met him and they became immediately overjoyed that their daughter had mated to such a wonderful young man.

"Of course sir." She said slowly. Carlisle filled In all of the necessary information using Edward's new fake ID, showing his last name as Cullen. I couldn't describe the thrill that went thru me seeing our last names the same, that name suited him greatly, though I loved his name as Masen.

The new doctor seemed shocked by his new patient and the rest of us, he also seemed to understand the danger. His heart beat speed up first in reaction to our appearances and then at our close proximity. Adrenaline started to course thru the doctors blood stream. Carlisle shifted away from the doctor after telling him what had happened and correcting the doctors diagnoses and Alice sat in the other side of the room. I smiled at him sweetly, not willing to move from Edward but wanting to make the poor man more comfortable, at least a little bit. The doctor stiffened even more when Jasper came into the room, Jasper often gave the 'predator' vibe.

"Everything alright?" Jasper asked us, looking at Edward's arm that was wrapped up.

"Yer, just a fracture. I've had worse." I felt Edward shrug against my head, which was resting against his shoulder.

"Yer like almost drowning." I muttered, remembering the story that he had told me during a biology leasson that seemed so long away, but had only been a month.

"That wasn't my fault." He told me.

"You almost drowned." Carlisle asked.

"Long story, stupid bike, distracting birds." Edward shrugged again, I frowned, not knowing that part of the story. Carlisle started to laugh at us.

The night was muggy, the hot air pressing in on us from all sides. I had missed the heat of climates like this but had grown to live the rain, the moist settings that we let ourselves like, the thick forests that I loved to run thru.

"So how are we getting home, do we have any flights booked?" Jasper asked

"There is a flight leaving in two hours, we could make that one." Alice said.

"Do you want to drive back Carlisle, or do you want one of us too?" Jasper asked. Part of me wanted to offer to drive back with Edward but I knew that we would be more than a day and Edward needed to rest, he could do that when we got back to Forks.

"No I will, just give Esme my love."

"We will."

"So, to the airport?" I was anxious to get going.

"We need to call Rosalie and Emmett to tell them that James isn't there." I stated.

"They probably aren't even off of the plane yet." Edward snorted.

"Actually they just bordered." Alice giggled.

Well that way we wouldn't have to deal with Rosalie for the rest of the weekend.

"Can we call them and get them off?"

"No, the plane has pulled away, about to take off. They will spend the rest of the weekend there though; they will be back about two am on Monday morning, so that they can go to school." Alice told us.

"Good."

At the airport, after we had gotten our tickets and went to our gate, but stopped to get Edward some food. He got some McDonalds chips and Jasper started to tell Edward about how eating unhealthily all the time was going to kill him. He just stared at him blankly and made sure to chew obnoxiously loud. After a while there were no humans around, and Edward turned his head from my hair and looked at Carlisle.

"How old are you?"

"How old do you think I am?"

"Twenty three." I saw Carlisle's shocked face and wondered if Edward would tell him that I had already told him about Carlisle.

"Not many people guess that but exactly right."

"Bella told me." I started to laugh lightly as Carlisle's expression turned into one of understanding.

"Oh, well I assume that you didn't mean that way anyway."

"No." Edward started to laugh lightly with me and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I was born in London, I am not quite sure of the exact date anymore, or the exact year either. Time wasn't kept as carefully for the common people back than." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. " I was born in the sixteen forties, or so I believe, just before Cromwell's rule though." I took in Edwards expression of shock, worried that the age would scare him.

"Oh." His voice sounded shocked, amazed and we all laughed at him, startling the human that was starting to fall asleep at the airport bar.

" I can show you in more detail when we get back to the house though."

"Show?"

"Painting and what not, have you never seen my office?"

"No, just the door."

"Oh alright than. Well, I will show you when I get home."

"Alright, thankyou." He smiled back at me. The flight was called then ice and I hugged our dad goodbye. I made Edward eat the plane food again but after he ate, let him wrap me up in his arms and then nuzzle his head in my neck. He sighed contently and was asleep in minutes.

"What happened whilst I was away?" I asked Jasper and Alice. He had his legs spread over the spare seats and Alice was straddling him, her arms wrapped round his neck and hiss head buried in hers. They both turned to look at me from their seats in front of us. Alice couldn't see properly thru the gap so she sat up, straightened up her back and looked over the seats.

"Not much, just talked some more about what we missed about….before." Alice told me. I knew what she meant by before, when they were human. Most of the humans were asleep but there were a few that we still awake, listening to IPod's, reading or watching the T.V. on the back of the seat.

"I told him about the fake IDs and what not. Edward seemed pretty shocked by that. He got all chocked up when I showed them to him the next day." Jasper's ID's were the best, most of the time they looked better than the real ones.

"He likes to know that he is cared for, he hasn't been very close to his family, ever, just his mother. After his dad died they haven't spoken much to anybody else."

We spent most of the rest of the flight in silence. Edward on woke up about ten minutes before we were to land, he seemed a bit confused at first before grunting that he was awake and holding me tighter. I stroked his hair and breathed his scent.

Esme was at the airport to pick us up and practically strangled all of us when she hugged us, she was probably more worried than I was thru all of this. She was just so happy to she us that my heart swelled with the affection for my mother.

"Are you all alright? What happened to your wrist dear?" She asked Edward, glancing worriedly at the spare hand.

"Just James." He shrugged easily, part of me was concerned that he wasn't scared about what had happened, but the bigger part of me was just happy that he was physically ( for the most part ) and mentally alright.

Edward slept again on the car ride and said my name again a few times in his sleep. Every time he did Esme grinned wildly and I felt my frozen heart stutter.

As soon as we got home Jas took everybody's bag and took them to their owners respective room, including Edwards. I made Edward eat some cereal and Alice, Esme and Jasper joined us.

"Is Phoenix nice?" Esme asked us.

"Yes it was, very sunny, nice and warm. I wish that we could have gone shopping, apparently there are some good in door malls there." Alice sighed.

"Thankfully we couldn't leave the room so there was no chance to shop" Jasper grinned. Alice threw her husband a dirty look before smiling back at us. I wondered idly if she could handle more than one emotion at a time.

"We will just have to go back there one day than." Jasper and Bella groaned.

"What is wrong with that?" I asked them, curious.

"You have never been shopping with Alice, the whole experience is absolute torture." Bella shuddered. That was definitely something that I didn't want to experience. Jasper and Alice left then, after saying that they were going to go to their room and Edward finished his food whilst Esme and I caught up with each other. After Edward and finished the food, he cleaned up and then dragged me upstairs. I was glad that I could be with him right now, I needed this. Edward closed the door after we got to my room and then took of his shoes, as did I. He lead me to the bed and Helped me lay on it, than curled up next to me. He wrapped his arms round me and buried his nose in my hair, I did the same with him but with my nose in that dip between his collarbones.

"Am I hurting the bruise" I asked him quietly, making sure that my strength was still in check.

"No, I'm fine." Edward seemed to be thinking something over "Are you?"

I looked up at him from his chest. "Are you serious? You just got attacked by a vampire – "

"Barley." I was surprised that Edward didn't roll his eyes.

"And yet you're asking of I am alright."

"Yes."

"Why."

"Because I know that something's wrong." He always knew when something as wrong, he saw thru me so clearly. I tried not to think about everything that had just happened because I knew that he could see everything in me eyes, but it dawned on me that we were finally here, finally alone and that we could finally talk about everything that we needed to. The guilt crept back up and I opened my eyes to see his green ones starting back and me intently.

"You got tracked by a vampire, said vampire managed to capture you from the hands of my siblings, that were literally sitting twenty meters away. You also get attacked by that vampire, and if you hadn't thought to distract James, you probably would have ended up dead. All because of me!" I exploded.

"This isn't your fault!"

"How is it not! I took you to that game, I defended you to obviously!"

"Well what else could have happened."

"If we had of just told them that we were going to eat you or that we were going to change you soon, if I hadn't of growled like that, than maybe nothing would have happened." There were so many ways that this could of gone, so many different things that could of happened. I loved him so much but constantly put Edward in danger.

I looked at her blankly. "Do you really believe that, James already held a grudge against all of you for getting Alice, that was part of why he tracked me. He was pissed that Alice got away, something about how this was only fair, you got the one that got away, but he got her new sisters mate."

"How do you know that?"

"James told me."

"How did you manage to distract him?"

"Well I had been expecting something dramatic but all that he did was shove me on a chair and say 'any last words' so I said 'what is that it?' and went on some rant about how expected something more. He let me talk for like ten minutes, we started talk about what files he found at me mothers house." That made sense, that was why James had yet to attack to viciously when we got there. Plus James would of hated to be out done by a human. That Edward had come up with a 'better' way to kill the human, would have irked James to no end.

"Oh, what was it?"

"My aunt's letter and he holiday itinerary."

"Letter?"

"The aunt that lives in Phoenix wrote to my mother and the letter had her address and said that we should meet up after she got back. She is holidaying somewhere in Ireland." Oh……..

"Well that makes sense."

Edward seemed to quickly think something over, then a grin lit up his face.

"What?"

"Gunna be so awkward the next time that I see her." He always knew what to say to help he. I rolled my eyes and laughed, just imagining what they could talk about if they needed to make a conversation.

"Bella,"

"You can say that this isn't my fault all that you want but – "

"But it isn't! If it's your fault, than it's my fault to."

"What!" How did Edward expect me to believe that?

"Well If I didn't smell so good than maybe James wouldn't have decided to track me."

Was Edward being serious? "Are you seriously saying that this is your fault because you smell to good?"

"Yes."

"You can't help how you smell though." Did he not understand that?

"And you can't help that James wanted revenge."

"How about we just agree to disagree?"

"For now." He shrugged, still smirking that bright crooked smile.


	11. Chapter 11 The Life & Times Of Carlisle

Edward Point Of View-

I woke up on Sunday morning to the dreary weather or Forks and the mist that I had grown accustomed to, grown to accept as necessary to spend the day with Bella. One of my arms were still over Bella's waist, the other was above my head. My head was still buried in her hair. She had an arm over my waist and one still over my stomach, covering my bruise. She had her head pressed against my chest, her nose right over my heart, which was starting to beat faster as I became conscious of her closeness.

"Good morning." Came her greeting, making me smile.

"Good morning, how was your night?"

"Quiet, Alice and Jasper are still hunting, and Esme went for a quick hunt before Carlisle gets back. "

"That should be soon right?"

"Yes, Carlisle would of gotten home earlier but something happened to the car, flat tire or something." She snorted. "Rosalie would be so pissed if she knew."

"Well, she wouldn't dare yell at Carlisle would she?" Rosalie clearly loved her family and respected Carlisle, surely she wouldn't disrespect Carlisle like that.

"Probably just glare."

"Hmmm." I was thoughtful for a moment, thinking about the events of the past day. A few hours after we got back, we went back to the main room to talk with the others and to start to watch a movie that somebody from school had suggested to us. Jasper and Alice soon joined Esme, Bella and I. They started to talk about what they would do after their graduation, only four and a half months away.

"_Well, Emmett and Rosalie will probably go on another honeymoon." Alice shrugged. _

"_And I will take the year off before we supposedly go off the college." Jasper remarked, wrapping his hand around his wife's._

"_But what will you tell everyone about Emmett and Rosalie?"_

"_Either that they went to university or that they are traveling. Just depends."_

"_So, what are you actually going to do, after the year is up?"_

_"For now the two of us will stay here. But after you, Bella and Alive have graduated__ we will either move just after, or we will stay here another year because you guys want to take a year off, and I want to stay with Alice, and Emmett and Rosalie are waiting to go with us. All depends on when we change you really." Jasper shrugged and Bella tensed, but then relax into my side. I think that she is getting used to me changing. She wanted it to, or so she had told me. "You know that we are going to have to fake your death right?" Jasper looked at me. He seemed to be testing the mood with his unique gift. He would not feel any hesitation from me, only a slight guilt. _

"_Yes." That was still the hardest part, what to do about my mother?_

"_We would have to wait a little while after graduation till we change him, maybe we go to the same college and we are driving there together, then we get into a car crash or something. That way, we can all still move, because everybody will think that we were all planning on moving close to the university anyway." Bella said from my side, and I looked at her shocked. She was actively participating in planning my change. "What?" She said, looking up at me. "You know that I want you to change, I just want to make sure that you really want that too." I smiled so brightly that my face hurt. She giggled and leaned over to kiss me._

"_That is a pretty good idea actually, we would just have to make sure that nothing else happened. Something could change." Jasper said again._

"_Like what if we get accepted to different universities. Do you know where you will be going to?" There was no doubt in my mind that they would be accepted anywhere that they applied._

"_Probably Dartmouth." Jasper said. "We haven't been there for ages."_

"_Oh." Could I get into an Ivy League university? Sure going to Dartmouth would be great, but would they accept me? I know that I wasn't actually going, but we needed the paperwork. Plus, maybe we could deter my entry and I could go some time after I was changed. _

"_I think that you could get into there." Bella looked up to me, correctly guessing the reasoning behind my short answer. I felt a boost of encouragement and belief get thrown up at me and looked up and at smiling Jasper._

"_You think?" I asked her, feeling the smile grow on my face._

"_Yer!"_

"_And besides, even if you don't go there, we can always pretend to go somewhere else, or even just forge the papers." Jasper shrugged._

"_Do you just forge everything?" _

"_Yes." Jasper answered so seriously and straight faced that I laughed. "I'm not joking."_

"_You really forge everything?"_

"_Pretty much, we need to for the most part. Licenses and ID's we don't always need to fake but mostly passports, especially birth certificates, sometimes adoption and foster papers, we never need to forge marriage certificates but sometimes death certificates."_

"_Why death certificates?"_

"_For our parents, or for each other."_

"_Alright then." I said slowly, questioningly. But Jasper didn't elaborate._

"_We had a lot of fun in the eighties." Bella sighed wistfully. Alice giggled with a far away look in her eyes and Esme sighed. I looked at her curiously to see that her eyes were tight._

_"You don't want to know how much that we spent on bail that decade."_

"_So if Edward is a newborn, where should we go to?" Alice asked, everybody looked at Esme._

"_We could go back up to the house near the Denali coven. There is plenty of space and wildlife up there, plus the house is very remote, no humans go near there and the house is huge." She nodded thoughtfully._

"_Getting everything there was annoying though." Jasper said._

"_Naww, army boy doesn't like the moving truck?" Bella teased her brother, who just stared at her blankly._

"_I thought that you had gotten over calling me that." _

_I laughed quietly at the nickname, I hadn't heard Jasper called that before._

"_Well the name suites you Major." Bella giggled, and before too long Alice joined in. Jasper just sighed and rolled his golden eyes._

"_Edward, I'm stuck here, you have the choice, do you want to go yet?" He asked me wearily. At this my laughed broke from my chest, leaving me gripping my sides. Of course Jasper got a shot of my emotions and, grinning, sent them to everybody else. We spent the next ten minutes laughing and then trying to calm ourselves._

I came from my thoughts smiling, and tightened my grip on Bella, breathing deeply again. "What time is it just by the way?"

"Erm eight." I nodded against her head. "Are you hungry?"

"Not yet, I am comfy here." I tightened my grip again. "Do you want to do something besides laying there though? You haven't moved all night, aren't you bored? Don't you need to move?"

"I am not bored, I am with you. Besides, my kind can stand still for years without ever feeling uncomfortable. We don't have to fidget and most newborns need to constantly be reminded to move and sometimes to even blink."

Oh, well I hadn't known that. "Did you have any trouble with that?"

"No, not really. I was a massive fidgeted when I was a human so after I was reminded the first few times everything that I used to do came rushing back." I laughed.

"I can just imagine you as a human, all blushing and tripping and fidgeting." And looking absolutely beautiful, but whatever.

"Well that was pretty much all that I did." She giggled.

I was silent for a moment, contemplating the new information that I had gained over the past two days. Bella was definitely becoming more accepting of the idea of me changing; her helping us to plan what would happen afterwards was proof of that. But there was still so much that I didn't know, I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

"Do you really not have to move?"

"I was wondering when you would ask that." She giggled, running her little fingers up and over my chest. "No, we don't have to move, and we can stay perfectly comfortable that way. Eventually that will get boring, but we don't have to move."

"Is that how you can act like a statue?"

"Yes," She laughed. "I hadn't realized that I had done that with you."

"Just two times."

"Well, we are technically dead. We don't have a heartbeat, nor blood. We don't eat or drink things that would sustain a human and we don't sleep. We can't physically change."

I scoffed at her insinuation. "What does you being 'dead' have to do with you being still?"

"Well, dead people don't move do they, they become stiff. It is in our nature to stay still."

"Oh, well I still don't think that you are dead."

"Maybe not mentally but physically – "

"Stillness may be instinctual but you can still move and laugh and talk and breathe. You are alive Bella."

She glanced at me briefly, before changing the subject. "Do you think that your mother will be frightened that we aren't back yet."

I was shocked, I had barely thought about Elizabeth since…. Friday. The shock was followed be a wave of guilt, how could I forget about my own mother? She was probably worried that we hadn't called her, I hadn't spoken to her since Wednesday morning and she was probably lonely.

Part of me thought that she would have to get used to being secluded, I was going to be changing in little over a year anyway.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked me, cupping my cheeks with her hands, gazing into my eyes.

"She is probably worried, I hadn't even thought to talk to her."

"Well, call her and tell her that when we got home yesterday, but you thought that you might wake her." I nodded and before I could comprehend what was happening, Bella had flashed from my arms and was back again holding my mobile in her hands. I unlocked the touch screen and hit the speed dial, wrapping my arm round Bella again as she laid next to me.

"What time do I say that you will drop me off?"

"Did you still want to talk to Carlisle?"

"Yer."

"Great. I can hear him now, so maybe twelve?"

"Great." I nodded. As soon as we had finished speaking my mother picked up the phone, the tone of her voice doing little to disclose her panic.

"Edward!"

"Hey mum! How are you?" The guilt hit me ten fold, _I forgot about my own mother._

"Oh, I'm fine, are you back?"

"Yer, we got back yesterday but I didn't want to wake you." Thankfully she didn't ask for the time that we arrived, I didn't like to lie.

"Oh, alright, what time will you be home do you think?"

"Probably about twelve, I need to talk to Carlisle about some things."

She didn't fight me.

"Oh alright then, I'll see you soon sweetheart."

"See you soon mum."

"Can't believe that I forgot about her." I muttered.

"Edward, that isn't your fault. You had a lot on your mind these past few days, and she wasn't in any danger."

"I should of at least thought about her, honestly, even on the time away, on the drive to Phoenix, I only thought about her once of twice."

"It's alright Edward, you had bigger things to worry about." She cupped m cheek with one of her hands again, I relaxed almost instantly, thinking about any empathetic power's that she might be hiding from me.

_Oh well, this helps._

"Are you alright?"

"I'm alright Bella." I smiled at her, she worried more then I did.

"Alright, well do you want to take a shower? I'll try to make some breakfast and then we can go and talk to Carlisle." I nodded, kissed her forehead and headed to the bathroom after getting some clothes.

I got ready for the day quickly, eager for food, Bella and finding out more about Carlisle. I was still having difficulty wrapping my head around living for so many years. Had he lived alone, apart from the Volturi, before he had met Bella? That was a long time to be by yourself, I couldn't imagine being by myself, not being able to talk to anybody or get close to anybody for that long. Everybody needs a companion if you are going to live that long, even people with an individual attitude.

That all really explained his love for the family.

I basically jogged to the kitchen to find Bella glaring at the pancakes that she had just put on my plate. These ones smelt great, but the window near the stove was open and there was a broken pan sitting on the sink.

"What happened?" I asked warily.

"The first two batches didn't want to cook properly, so I broke the pan." She shrugged. "How can society frown upon my diet when they offer these as an alternative?" She asked, probably not expecting a reply.

"Well, I don't frown upon your diet."

"Yer, and if we told any of the other humans, they would all be too scared to talk to us to frown upon the diet." Jasper said off handedly as he and Alice walked past the kitchen and up the stairs. "Monring Edward."

"When did you two get back?"

"Just now." I shrugged and dug into the pancakes, almost moaning at the taste.

"You know, the fact that you can cook better pancakes then me when you haven't needed to eat for like, almost a hundred years, is just so unfair. Is there anything that you can't do?" I frowned at her, only half joking.

"I can't carve." She said.

"Carve?" Well that was a bit random, just a bit.

"Yer, Emmett tried to teach me woodwork and carving and all that, I just couldn't. After hours of failing I just threw the wood thru the wall and walked away, only to be made fun of for the next two decades. Never did I make fun of Emmett because it took him a month to be able to open a door, but no, just because I can't carve Emmett makes fun of me." She grumbled, and I found myself laughing loudly despite myself, and Bella. "Oh, you think that this is funny do you? Well I am not opening any doors for you when you change, nor am I helping you to play the piano when you are too strong." That stopped my laughter.

"I was only laughing at your expression, you looked so annoyed that you can't carve." I chuckled again but stopped upon seeing her glare. "Sorry." I was still smirking as I started to eat my pancake again. "So why couldn't Emmett open the door?"

"Because every time he tried to, he would crush the door handle."

"So I won't be able to play?"

"Well, you will probably have better control with your strength then Emmett, today he is still the strongest that I know of. The rest of us only took a little bit of time to control the strength. Just depends on what you are handling, you need to know who much force to use. The piano will probably be good practice for you." I nodded, my eating had slowed considerably and I tried to eat faster so that they wouldn't get cold.

"How did you learn to cook like this?" I asked her.

Shrugging, she answered me casually. "T.V."

"Ah the wonders of the twenty first century."

She grinned back at me and I rolled my eyes at her, Miss. I'm born at the beginning of the twentieth century.

She let me wash up my own dishes, she was almost as bad as Esme when it came to letting me do my own cooking and washing. We then walked together up the stairs to Carlisle's office. I didn't bother trying to hide my enthusiasm at finally being able to talk to Carlisle about his history and the things that he had done. I all but skipped up the stairs with this giddy grin on my face, practically dragging poor Bella along, who was all smiles and giggles at me acting like your average five year old. Age discrimination. Whatever. I can act like a five year old if I want to. I just looked over my shoulder at her and stuck my tongue out at her.

_Sure, like that will help. _

She giggled at me again and I just continued to pull her up the stairs to the second story. When we got to the door, I stopped and pointed at it, not completely remembering if I was at the right place. She nodded encouragingly and I knocked on the door.

"You can come in." I heard Carlisle's calm voice say quietly on the other side of the door.

I opened the door quietly and pulled Bella along with me. Carlisle got a note to mark the page and closed the book with a quiet thump. He smiled up at us. "Hello." He was always so composed, so calm and I wondered how he could always keep up such a cool façade.

"Hey Carlisle." I replied.

"Hi dad."

"Good night?"

"Of course, Esme and the others will be back soon."

"Was the drive nice?" I asked feeling slightly guilty that Carlisle had made the drive back by himself.

"Yes, I've never been to Phoenix before, a nice change of scenery." Of course he wouldn't want me to feel put out.

"I was wondering if.…maybe you could…." I was stuttering, why was I stuttering?

"You wanted to ask me if I could tell you more about my story?"

I smiled and nodded sheepishly. As retaliation he grinned back.

"Well, there is quite a lot to tell,"

"Understandably." I couldn't help but input. Carlisle didn't seem to mind.

"A lot has changed in three hundred and seventy odd years, so stop me if you need me to explain anything." I nodded again and Carlisle stood up from the desk, walking around to where Bella and I were standing. I moved backwards for him and he moved past me, pointing at the wall that the door was on. I turned and stood still, shocked at the painting that I had missed some how at first. The wall was full of them, some huge and colourful, some tiny and in sepias and black and white. I looked round the room and saw more paintings on the other walls, not so much story telling ones, but still spectacular.

"As you know, I was born in the sixteen forties, I was the only son of an Anglican pastor, and my mother died whilst giving birth to me." I rose my eyebrows, not only at the irony that the pastor's son had become a vampire, but at the fact that Carlisle's mother had died whilst birthing him. Knowing Carlisle, he had felt guilty for that - he had probably tried to make emends.

"That Cross over there," He pointed to the wall to the right, and I noticed the large, wooden Cross that was mounted on the wall. "was carved by the pastor, and hung above the pulpit where he preached. After he did, I want back and got it, I knew that he had always meant for me to get it, though he expected the cross to be kept in the Church." Carlisle smiled.

"Why?"

"Well, I was his only son, I was meant to take over from him once he got to be too old. And I was going to, certainly." He added after a light pause, looking thoughtfully back at me, than back at the Cross. "He led many hunts for creatures, werewolves, witches and vampires. We never found any real vampires but many innocent people were framed to be the monsters, and they were burnt. I could never stand watching that, but what choice did I have? I was the Pastors son, this was what I had to do, I had to help to set the example that the community needed." He pointed to a small, square oil painting. "This was the London of my youth, this roof here, that was the Church that we preached at." I looked at the small painting, the pointed roof tops and the winding river. I could see the Church that he had pointed to quite clearly. I looked up at the man standing in front of me, looking reminiscently at the painting in front of him, stunned that he was really telling me this, that he had really lived here, a life in this London, in this time. What a change society would be for him right now.

"Eventually, I took over leading the raids. I was, at first, a bit of a disappointment. I didn't accuse anybody, not believing that they were the monsters that we sought, and if anybody was brought to me, I would research much more thoroughly then the other men before me had, I spoke to more people then just who brought them to me, and found that they were not really the monsters. I would not kill an innocent.

"Eventually though, I stumbled upon a real coven of vampires. They lived with the sewers and only came onto the street at night to hunt. I was walking back to the house, late at night, I do not remember why, but I was the monster go back thru the sewer hole. I raced back home to tell the others, and we gathered enough men. The next day, well, the next night, we went back to the sewer. They emerged, and the one that had come called back to the other vampires, he was speaking Latin I thought, and the other vampires came to the street as well. We started to run after them and most of them continued to run at s slightly faster than human pace. Two of them were two hungry and they pounced on two of the party men. We kept on running, we had decided that we would chase them no matter what, no matter if one of us got hurt. The one that I was after was the one that had told the other vampires to come up to the street. The vampire didn't run very fast, to hungry probably, the scent of the blood was too strong, especially now that the other men's blood had been spilt. The vampire turned on me, attacked. We both fell to the ground and he paused just before he bit me. The vampire looked at the robes that I wore, the Cross round my neck and knew who I was, what I was. The vampire smiled and then bit me, I could feel the venom enter the blood system but pulled away just before I could die. Then I was alone, but I knew what would happen now. I had been infected, not just killed. I knew what they would do to me if they found my body, anything that had been infected by the monster would be killed, even if they were still alive. So, my self preservation kicked in and I tried to get up and walk. I ended up just crawling over to the alleyway. I buried myself in rotting potatoes and waited."

Ha gave me time to think about that, and my mind was spinning with all that he had just told me. He had actually managed to find the vampires, that was a feat, even I knew that. I still could not imagine going thru the change alone, waking up alone.

"You were changed because you were a Pastor, or almost at least?"

"Yes."

"Do you think that if you had worn something else, that you would of still been changed?"

"I don't know, but if I had not of been changed, I never would of gotten my family."

"Haha, vamily." Bella chuckled. Breaking the silence. I looked over at her with raised eyebrows, 'vamily'? Really? I had expected something like that from Emmett but not Bella. Her face was tense, her mouth tight and her eyes clouded with worry. Was she afraid that the story would scare me?

Carlisle gave her a pointed look with one eyebrow raised, before looking back at me, smiling lightly. "So, after three days, I was changed. I woke up at night, luckily, so no body was around. I realized what I was and was completely disgusted in myself, I had become what I had hunted, what we had spent so much time looking for – once the hunter, now the monster. I could feel the thirst and a man ran past the entryway of the ally. The thirst flared and I knew what I wanted to do, what my instincts where screaming at me to do. And so I ran, I left the city and went to the forest and hid for….well a very long time. I have no idea, the concept of time was all but foreign to me. I worried that if I strayed to close to the human population, that I would attack. I had tried to kill myself," I stiffened, what! Carlisle, good, Church going, Pastor….being Carlisle tried to commit suicide? Wasn't that a sin? That would be against the Religion. " I jumped off of the many cliffs, tried to drown myself, but of course rocks can't hurt us. I finally decided to starve myself, I could die and maybe I could still go to Heaven, I had not sinned, I had not killed. I had been waiting for ages, but I wasn't dying. I was weak, but not dying, just weak and thirsty. But eventually I found myself hiding up in a cave, when I heard a herd of dear go pass, and I got so thirsty and breathed in their scent, and without thinking, I attacked." Of course, that was how he had discovered the new and improved vampire diet. How had nobody else every gotten this?

"After I had fed I realized that I didn't have to be a monster, had I not eaten venison in my past life? I was determined to do something good with the life that I had been given. I had already become aware of the changes in my sensatory system, there had to be something that I could do with them to help the human population. I had unlimited time, and as I soon discovered, we remember everything, which proves to be very useful." His voice changed when he said that last part, becoming brighter, as if this were knowledge that he had to make sure that I knew. Obviously this was very important to him.

"And, so, that was what I did. I gained control and after a year or so I could go to the human population without danger of hurting them. I studied at night. Went to universities at day, but continued to hunt and read and learn at night. After a while, I swam to France and – "

"Wait you swan to France!" They both looked at me amused. "Sorry but…you_ swam to France!_"

"People swim the channel all the time." Bella smiled lightly at me.

"Yes but….still, you swam to France!"

They both laughed, but he swam to France!

"Of course, but you need to remember that we don't get cold and that we do not need to breath, so the swim didn't take very long. I like swimming, I had never gotten the chance to do much as a human and find it quite enjoyable as a vampire."

"Is it much different? "

"Not really," Bella said. "but we can't go as fast because of the resistance of the water."

"Emmett doesn't like swimming, he doesn't like his strength or speed being taken away, no matter how little." Carlisle added.

I smirked, totally believing that. I could only imagine a frustrated Emmett cursing at the water from frustration.

"So, you swam to France? " I smirked.

"Yes, I swam to France and continued to study the sciences and art of the world, but after a few years there, I continued on to Italy. That was where I met the Volturi." I stiffened at the mention of the vampires that could kill Bella. Carlisle pointed at another picture, the biggest. There was an ornate gold frame and three men were featured in the picture, at the forefront at least, but in the background, there was another, a golden haired man that look quite familiar. "Aro," Carlisle pointed to the black haired man, standing at the front. "Marcus," The other black haired man on Aro's right. "And Caius." The snowy white haired man standing on the other side.

So the trio was complete, but still, that golden haired man.

"Carlisle, is that, is that you?" I pointed to the man that was standing in the background, looking angelic and royal in their seventeen hundred clothing. In looked over at Carlisle who was smiling sheepishly at me.

"Yes, I stayed with them for a few decades and they became quite fond of me, I was often allowed to view their hearings and painted with them, I didn't take very many with me when I left, and not all of them are here." Carlisle, of course, hadn't changed a bit since the time that the picture was taken, and stepping a step closer, I could see him all the more clearly. Still with golden hair and golden eyes, smiling angelically with hands clasped in front of him, leaning against one of the golden marble pillars.

"Wow." They let me mull this over for a few more minutes, and I was beginning to process that this really had all happened, that people could really live this long. My mind started to wonder, 'could I really live for that long, happily and content with everything?' But I knew that I could immediately. Bella was amazing, I could live for thousands of years and never be miserable with her. "What did you do then?" I asked them.

" Continued to live with the Volturi, only for about twenty more years after that picture had been painted. They continued to try to get me to sway my eating habits, but I would not waver. I tried to get them to at least try the animal diet but they continued to tell me that my diet was crazy, that I would starve and weaken with time, I was constantly disgusted with the amount of innocent life lost there."

"Why did you stay there?"

"Because they were civilized for the most part, apart from the human hunting. They were well educated and offered my plenty of opportunities to learn. They had fine arts and many libraries and they offered stimulating and intelligent conversation. I could learn how I world worked, though I often disagreed with their decisions about punishment."

"Bella told me that they kill the vampires that break the law."

"Yes, though sometimes these were newborn vampires that didn't know any different, I think that those should have been given second chances. They could have been taught, learnt the way that they were to conspicuously live and than set free." Well that made sense.

"But eventually you left the Volturi, what did you do that for?"

"I was sick of the death and sick of the pressure, plus I was frustrated that they wouldn't even think about trying the alternative. That they could ridicule my diet without even trying. So I left them to venture to the new world."

"How did you get there?" If Carlisle had all of these pictures then swimming was not an option.

"I hunted excessively and then caught a boat over."

"Oh."

"I started to practice medicine once I got here. I went back to university and would work with the human population when necessary, but could only work around open blood for one day without needing to hunt for the first two years. The training was grueling, but after I had graduated I would go back to a different school and try again. I did that for near enough two decades. After that time, I more or less had enough control to work in the hospital, but of course I went back to school every few decades because everything was changing, developing."

"Did you ever stay with any other vampires?"

"No, of course, I met them and let them clean up in the houses that I as staying at, but they never stayed for more than a few days. Some of them were curious about the diet but most of them thought that I was crazy and none of them ever thought about staying with me.

"I continued to travel and in the year 1910 I went to Ohio. Working the night shifts was becoming tedious by 1911, and I was growing even more lonesome. Then one day, Esme came in."

"Esme! But I thought that you changed her in 1922?"

"Oh I did, but I met her ten years earlier. She had broken her leg and had been taken to the hospital. The family farm was a few hours drive from the hospital and the local doctor for her town was unavailable. By the time that she got there it was night and I had started my shirt. I fixed her leg and she fell asleep. The next night when I got there she was still awake and we spoke for hours, she was having difficulty sleeping because she had spent the past night awake, it had been past one when we had gotten her leg just right. I learnt about her I fell in love with her. I thought that she felt something too, but she was human and mostly healthy and I could not take away her humanity. She had a human boy that wanted to court her and she had the possibility of a happy human life, though I wish that I had changed her now."

"So that you could spend more time with her?"

"Yes, that and for other reasons, but I will let her explain that to you." I nodded.

"Soon after the event, Esme left the hospital, and I went to Chicago. I had been working there for a few years when the influenza started." I stiffened with a sense of strangely placed excitement, that kind where your heart starts to best faster and you don't want to know but you also really need to know. I looked over at Bella but she was not looking at me any more, but looking back at Carlisle. "There was panic everywhere, we had no cure, no way to stop the dieses and many thought that a simple piece of cloth over the mouth would stop you from contracting the virus. The masks barely helped. In August, the elderly woman that ran the seamstresses and the man the kept the store next door brought in Bella. I was there that day, I had told them that I would stay the day, and we were so short staffed that nobody argued with me. I ended up working for thirty two hours that day and nobody told me to get home." I smiled grimly. "When they brought Bella in, I was the one that attended to her and took her to the cot. There was something different about her, so after I had done the rounds, I went to check up on her."

"And I woke up." Bella muttered, seeming to remember. I wondered if she had heard this part of the story since she had been changed. She had wide eyes that were seeing things that I could only imagine.

"Yes, you woke up and you thought that you had died." Carlisle chuckled whilst I stiffened, how could he be laughing at the thought of Bella being dead.

"I thought that you were an angel." She laughed, effectively making me relax. Well that was kind of funny,

_She must of thought that Carlisle was very good looking_. I thought. Biting back the jealousy that that thought brought me, I tried to remind myself that he was nothing more than a father figure to her. With a strange sense of déjà vu I was reminded of the night in Port Angeles, where my jealousy had eaten me up at the movie theater. Internally rolling my eyes at myself, I tried to concentrate on what was going on now.

"You were confused and I told you what had happened, but you didn't seem to mind that you were dying. I was confused, no other humans that I had met that were suffering from the disease were seemingly uncaring about what was happening to them. I was curious about you, and I couldn't help the feeling of….change, that I got around you. So I can back every night and spoke to you. You knew that something was different about me, and were irritated that I would not tell you. The third day that you were there I asked you who you were and you started to cry, you told me everything, and than I understood why the concept of death was somewhat inviting to you. On the eight day, I knew that if I didn't do something, that you would not be there the next night." Carlisle, who had been staring intently at Bella, who had been staring out the window, turned his gaze to me. His eyes softened and I could see how much effort telling this story put on him. To change Bella must have been very difficult, and having to see her go thru the change would have been even worse. Part of me suspected that he already loved her like a daughter before he had bitten her. "So, I told her everything, and gave her the option to change. She took it, and I ran her back to the apartment. Do you know much about the transformation?"

"Yes, Bella told me pretty much everything."

He nodded. "I bit her the way that I had been bitten, and regretted that later. I wasn't sure how to, and discovered that the way that I had done not only prolonged the change but made the initial bite all the more painful. We discovered the right way that the change is made with Esme, who of course I changed next.

"After three days Bella was done and after we went hunting we stayed in the forest for about three days. I told her everything and we kept on hunting. After we were satiated we went back to the apartment – "

"Though you only let go of me when we got to the bathroom."

"And with good reason." I smiled lightly at the two of us, standing side by side next to him. "After she got cleaned up we went to Ashland.

"For the first four years we worked on the gift and Bella got used to being a vampire. I didn't work for the first two years but I started to miss the hospital so Bella told me to go and get a job. I did, and two years later, I found Esme. She had been brought to the morgue but her heart was still beating. I recognized her scent almost immediately and realized how she was, even though she was badly hurt. I couldn't stop myself. I ran with her back to the house and asked Bella to help me stop if need be."

"After you managed to calm me."

"Yes were quite confused." He grinned. "I quite the job at the hospital and focused on my growing family. Esme change went smoothly and though she had difficulty with the blood lust, her compassion helped her tremendously. Soon, I grew tired of trying to resist her, so I told her how I felt about her. "He grinned boyishly, his eyes getting a dreamy mist to them.

"Soon," Bella muttered. "Yer right, took the two of you months, needed to meddle so much – "

"You meddled?" Carlisle looked astounded, and Bella's eyes widened before she looked away bashfully, playing with the hem of her t shirt.

"Only what was needed to be meddled with."

"How much meddling are we talking about here?"

"Just enough, I just gave you two a push in the right direction."

Carlisle started at her for a few moments more, before looking back up at me and continuing on with the story. "We stayed there until 1928, almost 1929, when we moved to Rochester, New York. Esme and I had actually married in 1923 and Bella was to be Esme's sister, as far as the humans were concerned. Rosalie, as you know, joined our family next. We found her in 1935, but I will let her tell you that story. Two years later Rosalie was hunting and found Emmett being attacked by a bear. She ran him back over one hundred miles to me so that I could change him, she was not sure that she could." He pointed to another painting. "We moved around for the next two years, but when we were living there in the fifties, Jasper and Alice found us."

"And what an entrance that they made." Bella laughed lightly.

"They knocked on the door and Alice all but tackled me when I answered. I hugged her back after a moment, Jasper got all tense and thought that I was going to attack her so she went back to him, but then Esme and Bella joined me at the door and she pushed past me and but tackled them too. "

"Then Carlisle got all defensive because he thought that Alice was going to attack us and then Jasper got upset at Carlisle. By the end me and Esme were shoved behind Carlisle, Jasper was standing protectively over Alice and she was rambling at two hundred miles per hour." Bella giggled.

" 'You have know idea how long we have been looking for you! Where are Rosalie and Emmett? Oh they are hunting! Well we can just meet them later! Oh this is so much fun but don't worry we aren't going to hurt you!' She just didn't stop. We still had absolutely no idea what was going on." I could imagine that all too easy. " Jasper got her to calm, and we invited them in. They explained everything to us and, after we couldn't deny that Alice could see the future they were welcomed into the family. We met the Denali coven soon after that. They live up in Alaska, Kate, Irena, Carmen, Eleazar and Tanya. We stay with them sometimes but there are to many of us, we are just too noticeable. Since then we have just moved round a lot." Carlisle told me with a light smile.

"Edward!" My mother thrilled as she threw her arms round my neck, practically chocking me.

"Hey." I gasped as she pressed against the bruise.

"Are you alright?" She asked me, concerned.

"Just a bruise."

"Oh I'm so sorry! What happened to your hand?"

"Fell over, that's what happened to my stomach too."

"Stomach?"

"That's where the bruise is."

"Oh." But she still looked worried.

"I am great mum, we had so much fun."

"Well that's good." She kissed my cheek lightly. "And Bella!" She threw her arms round my girl friends waist and Bella put hers gently round my mothers neck. "How are you dear?"

"I'm wonderful Elizabeth, did you have a good for days?"

"Yes, I had forgotten how peaceful that the quiet could be." A sly smirk in my direction. I rolled my eyes, we both knew that I wasn't that loud. We chatted for about ten more minutes before Bella went home, for a few hours at least.

"So how was the camping?" My mother asked me, avoiding my eyes contact as she started to make sandwiches for lunch.

'Well mum, I watched a vampire baseball game, proceeded to get stalked by a vampire, went to Phoenix and then the said vampire stalker ran me thru the city and tried to kill me, but don't worry, my girlfriend and her family killed him using their teeth.' For some reason I didn't think that that would go over to well. "It was great! I got to know Jasper and Alice a lot better." I went on to tell her stories from the 'camping trip', which was difficult because I hated to lie to her but she wouldn't let me get away with 'we went hiking, it was fun'. She 'hmmm' and nodded and laughed at all the appropriate times. She told me that she went to Port Angeles for dinner on Saturday night with Sue Clearwater and I could barely repress the frown that wanted to show on my face.

_Sue Clearwater is fine, she may not like you, but she does not change forms to a giant wolf. Sue Clearwater is safe._

I think that my mother saw the disapproval in my eyes though, because she threw me a questioning glance before she started to clean the dishes.

"You don't like Sue Clearwater?"

"Mrs. Clearwater is fine, but she does not like me, I can tell." She gave me a look as if to say 'and?'. "Sam Uley is the one that I don't like." She didn't question me and I was glad about that. The less lies that I had to tell the better.

We spent the rest of the day talking and reading, but when mother got a call from Sue Clearwater I went upstairs to unpack. I probably sounded like an overprotective old man but she shouldn't be spending time at the reservation. For all that the Cullens said about me having a lack of self preservation, I knew that the wolf's were dangerous. The Cullens, on the other hand, were not dangerous to me. They didn't eat people and their compassion and acceptance of me into their family made them adverse to hurting me, particularly Bella (singer or not.). I was muttering about the reservation when I heard her angelic voice from behind me.

"You know, Sue isn't that bad, though her children, or at least one of them, faces the possibility of changing." I spun round to see Bella on my bed, her hands put together behind her head and looking up to the ceiling, as if she could still see the stars.

"How long have you been there for?"

"Long enough."

Than something that she said hit me. "Wait, her children could change?"

"Yes, her son Seth, and her daughter Leah."

"The women don't change, apparently." I told her as I went and sat on the bad, picking up her legs and putting them over my lap.

"How do you know that?" She looked up at me inquisitively.

"When they told me about the different legends."

"Oh, so just Seth."

"But why would he be more likely to change?"

"Blood line, his dad is a member of the tribe council, right?"

"Yes."

"Well those three men, and Sam Uley, know about the wolfs. Of course, their wives do too, but those three men actually saw their parents and grandparents turn into the wolfs."

"Wow. How long ago would they have been changing then?"

"I don't know, but I think that there had been a fair amount of time since Sam. The last that we were here there was a Black, an Uley and an Ateria."

"That's Jacob, Sam's and Quil's last names." I remembered the other two boys as the ones that told me the stories, Quil had wanted the legends to be true. He had thought that being able to be a warrior would be cool, and now he might just get the chance to. The irony was not lost on me, but I could only hope that he would still be happy with the ability if he did change. I liked Quil, he had been nice didn't see anything wrong with Bella, I wouldn't wish anything bad on him.

"They are the direct decedents, there is a good chance that they will change. I wonder…..." She looked straight up again, thoughtful.

"What?"

"Black was the name of the chief the last time, I wonder if, when The new Black changes, he will get the title of the chief or if Sam will stay the chief."

"But Sam changed first this time. The first changed would be the leader right?"

"Yer, but this is about blood. To be the chief would be The black blood line."

"Huh." This really wasn't the point of the conversation. "I still don't like her." Bella laughed at me.

"Are you ready for school tomorrow?" She asked me, leaning her head against my chest after a few moments of silence.

"Yes, but I have got to do that Trig assignment. Have you started?"

"I did it the day that we got it."

"Oh, well, you can do your in ten minutes." Plus she had done the course countless times.

"That's not the point." My plan from the other day was coming back to the forefront of my mind, I hadn't gotten the chance to speak to Alice but I thought that if I spoke to Bella, that she could give me an even better answer – even if this was now longer a surprise.

"I was thinking about maybe changing round my time table." I started quietly. She looked up from my chest urgently.

"What do you mean?

"I was thinking about changing my Spanish class to the time that you have French, that way we could get to be together – " She broke off what I was saying by kissing me passionately. Putting my hands round her waist I pulled her on top of me so tat I could feel every line of her body on mine I moaned at the feeling.

She pulled back, her eyes excited, bright and spilling over with love. She was breathing heavily, as was I, and leant her forehead against mine. "You'd do that?" She asked breathlessly.

"What?" I gasped, still trying to regain my breathing.

"Swap the classes to be with me?"

"Because spending more of my time with you would be such a burden." I rolled my eyes. Did she not understand my feelings for her at all?

"I'd love it of you did that." She kissed me lightly again. "Alright, now go and eat, I will be up here when you're done."

"Yes ma'am." I muttered as I walked from the room, grinning like an idiot. I would gladly change to French to if that was the kind of reaction that I got.


	12. Chapter Twelve The Graduation

**Hey! So, surprise! This is the second up date in two or three days. It would have been up sooner but I got up to page twelve and decided to read what I currently had. I didn't like that I had skipped so much and was writing everything so briefly. I decided to write a little bit more on one part and then suddenly I had another mini-drama. So, I missed the eight pm deadline that I had given to ttyyytt but you have a much better chapter. For all those that wanted them to get a little more imitate with each other, that starts in this chapter. No, no lemons yet. I think that there will be some more towards the end of the story, but there are probably still a few chapters to go. I wrote one lemon for my other story 'A Second Chance' and if you asked me the whole thing sucked. There will be a sequel, but I have not started to plan that yet. There might be some breaking dawn features but no babies, there will never be a baby in my story. No weird Bella becomes pregnant or becomes half human and gets pregnant. I though that the baby in Breaking Dawn kind of ruined the story. I mean, yer it was good but could have been better.**

**This will probably be the last update until I go to Thailand, I doubt that I can get another chapter written with all of the school work that I have got to do until I go.**

**So enjoy and review! Reviews are better then Rosalie getting told off in the middle of Forks High school, as you will soon find out.**

"So why do you want to change?" Mrs. Cope, the secretary asked. I had already been here for the past ten minutes and the bell for the first class had already rung. From was going to be over soon.

"There are a few different reasons."

"Mr. Varner isn't the reason is he, because he would just be the teacher of the new class too."

"Oh, Mr. Varner is fine. Some of the other boys in the class are the problem."

She straightened up in her chair. "Edward, if somebody is saying hurtful things to you, you must tell me – "

"Oh it's nothing like that. Mike is just being a bit spiteful. There was an incident last month and ever since the boy has been childish. "

"Alright, I can arrange the change." And with a few more clicks on the computer I was in Bella's trigonometry class. She printed off the new time table and I went to the first class. I skidded into the class room and handed the teacher the note that explained why I was late, started towards my row happy with the Bella situation, before skidding to a stop halfway to my desk. I sat at the right hand corner at the back row, by myself on the two person desk. Everybody else already had a partner, except for me, and that was how everybody kept things. Jessica had sat next to me a few times before I started to date Bella, but had quickly started to sit with Angela again after that. But today, for some reason, she was sitting on the left hand side, right next to where I usually sit, with an unusually low cut t shirt for a town like this (unless you want to get hypothermia) and more make up than a hooker from New York.

_What the fuck?_

I looked around the class, my head swiveling round uselessly for somebody that she was trying to impress, like Mike Newton or somebody new that I had failed to hear about, but saw nobody new, just everybody starting at me giving me a look that clearly said 'why are you just standing there looking like a dumb ass?'. Trying to not look like a dumb ass, I walked slowly towards the desk, what used to be my desk, but what hopefully would not be my desk for much longer – particularly if Jessica continued to sit here.

_Why didn't you change to Bella's english class to?_

_Because that stupid Ryan kid transferred there._

_Do you think that we could pay him to change classes?_

_Are you really asking your internal monologue a question when you are the internal monologue?_

The other half of my internal monologue decided not to answer that question, trying to keep some respect. I sat next to Jessica Stanley, sitting as far away as I could without leaning over the desk, and started to write the notes.

"Edward." I heard her voice ask, but kept my eyes steadfast on my book.

"Edward." The voice was louder now, and I decided not to bother ignoring her anymore. She would not stop.

"Yes Jessica."

"I was wondering if you wanted to do something tonight?" My eyes popped open and then towards her in shock. Was she freaking serious?

"Excuse me?"

She bent over towards me, trying to show over what was barely hidden by her shirt. One of her hands came towards my shoulder and I leant back. She frowned slightly but my actions didn't seem to deter her.

"I wanted to know," She tried to sound seductive, and I guess that she may of succeeded had I not been desperately in love with Bella. "If you wanted to get together tonight."

"I have plans."

"With who?" She demanded, this news stopping her hand.

"Bella."

"So?"

"So my girl friend that I love very much and I have plans that I would like to keep."

She didn't seem phased. "What about tomorrow?"

I stared at her blankly. Had she hit her head or something last night, or was she always like this? "I have plans with Bella tomorrow night too."

"Well Bella can learn to share."

"No, I think that she's fine like she is." I smiled at her and tuned back to the book, trying to copy the notes from the board.

"Why? She can't have you every night; you need to have other people in your life."

"She really can."

"What, do you let her control you or something?"

"No, but I would."

"Why!" She demanded.

"Because I love her."

She sighed heavily, as if the information was of great shock to her, and found this exhausting to talk about.

"Alright, so not today or tomorrow night but what about – "

"Jessica!"

"What Edward?" She looked up at me.

"I can assure you that I will be busy every day and night for the rest of my life."

"The rest of your life?" She snorted.

"Yes, the rest of my life." I nodded slowly for her, as if this was one of the most obvious things in the world. Which, admittedly, it was in the top five, but I couldn't really expect Jessica to understand the connection that Bella and I had.

"You want to be with Bella for the rest of your life? What, do you want to marry Bella Cullen." She snorted. Again, in the top five, I had decided this when we were in Phoenix, but then again, Jessica couldn't not be expected to know this.

"If she will have me." I said with all seriousness. She stared at me blankly for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. I really hope that Bella didn't hear me, kinda, she wasn't meant to know about this. Alice probably did though, the little pixie better not tell her.

"You're serious."

"Yes." She made some sort of chocking noise that did not sound healthy. "So a date with you would not be a smart thing to do when dating the girl that I intend to marry." I grinned at her before turning back to the book that I was writing in. Jessica gathered her books quickly as soon as the bell went and I grinned lightly in satisfaction.

_Masen: 1 Stanley: 0 _

I met Bella in the history class and smiled brightly at her, just happy to be with her.

"How was english?" She asked me.

"Frustrating and amusing." She gave me a curious look and cocked her eyebrow. I told her what had happened with Jessica, only editing a little bit, and was shocked by the furious expression on her face when she looked at the front row where Jessica was sitting. "Bella?"

"How dare she!" Bella hissed. My eyes widened, I hadn't expected her to be this angry. Actually, I had expected to laugh quietly and then kiss me on the cheek, that was what she usually did. I was the one that got all angry whenever someone made an advance on her.

"Bella it's alright." I put my arm around her shoulder, scooting the chairs closer together.

"No! What she did was not alright, how dare she think that she can touch my mate!" Bella hissed.

Her mate. I had only heard myself being referenced to as Bella's mate a handful of times. She usually just said her partner or something like that. I hadn't really thought about why she did not call me her mate all the time like the others did, maybe she thought that the term would make me uncomfortable. Well, it didn't make me uncomfortable, I liked it. I really like it actually. And just like that, I knew what I had to do to calm her. I scooted the chairs even closer together so that they touched and practically put her on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the spot just in front of her ear.

"Don't worry about her Bella. I am your mate, not hers." I whispered into her ear. She relaxed slightly in my embrace and her glare started to lack fire. "Your mate Bella, yours." I kissed her again. She let out the breath that she had been holding and leaned into me. She closed her eyes and turned her hear around to face me. She skimmed her nose across my check before she met my lips.

"My mate." She whispered against them before kissing me. She pulled away after a few moments and breathlessly leaned her forehead against mine.

"You referred to yourself as my mate." She said.

"That's because I am." I said easily. I liked the terminology.

"You don't mind that word?" She looked like she as bracing herself.

"No, I actually like the word."

"But it's a vampire term." We were still whispering so we were in no trouble of being heard. The class was still being noisy because the teacher was not here yet.

"Well you are a vampire love. And, if everything goes to plan, I will be to someday soon." I grinned. She closed her eyes again and smiled, somewhat wistfully, then kissed me lightly again.

"You still haven't spoken to everybody yet."

"There is only Esme, Rosalie and Emmett to go. I am sure that they will be happy to speak to me, except for Rosalie." Congratulations

"That true." Bella nodded. I noticed then that the people sitting at the table around us were staring at us, still talking, some probably about us and some probably pretending that they were not staring at us. I turned back to look at Bella. "How about you come back to my place toady after school and we can talk to Esme?"

"Alright then."

"Mr. Masen could you please tell me why Miss. Cullen is sitting on your lap?" The history teacher asked us.

"She was feeling ill sir." I said without missing a beat.

"I thought that I might pass out, I feel odd." Bella rested her head against my shoulder.

"Do you need to go to the sick bay?" Mr. Ericson asked Bella.

"No Sir."

"Then get back to your seat thankyou Miss. Cullen." Mr. Ericson nodded to her before starting to write on the board again. Bella sighed but sat back on the seat. After history I went to my Spanish class, wishing desperately that I had chosen to do french instead.

_That's what you get for not listening to your mother._ She had wanted me to learn French, something about being a romantic language.

The only plus side was that I got to do trigonometry with Bella.

I made me way through the door, saying goodbye to Bella and seeing that Jessica, who was sitting next to Angela, was glaring at Bella. When she saw that I was looking at her, she glared, then smiled, then turned back to the front of the classroom. Thoroughly confused, I went to the teacher and handed her the slip saying that I had changed my class. I took s seat on the other side of Ben, who was sitting on the two person desk next to Angela and Jessica's, glad that he was here. I liked Ben, even if the guy was totally clueless. Angela obviously liked him, and he quite clearly adored her. The only people that couldn't see what the felt for each other were the two of them.

The teacher wrote up the conjunctions on the board and told us to work together in teams of four to match up the conjunctions.

"Do you two want to be a team with the two of us?" Angela asked us with a pleading glint in her eyes. I got the feeling that Angela didn't like Jessica very much.

"Alright." Ben said immediately, with a smile on his boyish face, before looking over at me seeming to say 'please'. I nodded with a smile. We picked up our chairs to carry them over to the girls desk, as half the class did. Over the noise, Ben could not be heard speaking to me. "Sorry about that, I forgot about what happened this morning in english."

Ben sat on the desk next to me in english, again with Angela. "It's alright, you and Angela make up for Jessica." He grinned at me.

Ben put his chair opposite Jessica, which allowed me to sit opposite Angela. I threw him a grateful smile and decided that I had to do something to make up for the generosity that he was displaying.

We worked together to try to unjumble the conjunctions and Jessica would either completely avoid me or try to touch me again. Angela, trying tactfully to break the tension that was radiating from me, started to talk about a movie that had just been released to the movie theater. Ben, realizing what she was trying to do, immediately jumped into the conversation.

"Apparently it's tipped to get an Oscar or a Golden Globe or something like that for best movie of the year." Angela said.

"That's what I never got, how can they decide what the best movie of the year is when the movie has only just come out, or when it's nowhere near the end of the yer yet?" I chimed in.

"Or when they saw 'the best album of the year.'." Ben grinned.

"Exactly! None of that stuff makes any sense unless it is actually at the end of the year."

"I would still like to see it though." Angela said happily.

"Yer me too." Ben said.

_Score! Opportunity here, advance with attack, operation Ben + Angela ago!_

"Well, maybe you two could go together." I said quietly, in the most nonchalant voice that I could, trying to keep the slime off of my face. The three of them froze. Angela and Ben were still looking at each other, and Jessica slowly looked up from her work to stare first at me and then to look at the other two.

"Umm.." Angela began to stutter. I shot a look at Ben, who was still frozen. I met his gaze and rose my eyebrows. He nodded determinedly, swallowed thickly, and then looked Angela straight in the eye.

"Would you like to go with me?"

Angela looked up at him and started to blush. I grinned and looked back at me work.

"I….well, yer, I would like that." My grin got even bigger.

_Mission complete. Status – successful. _Jasper would be proud. They started to make plans about when they would go and decided on a viewing that night.

I left the classroom feeling much happier than I had when I had started the lesson but only part of that was due to my success with Ben and Angela . Bella met me at the door of the class room and we start to trigonometry. I gave the teacher the note and took a seat next to Bella on the right hand side of the front row of the classroom.

The lesson went quickly, but this class was a bit further ahead in the course than I was so I got extra homework.

The others were already at the table by the time that we got there, they were all sitting, talking quietly with their trays of props in front of them.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Bella asked them as we sat the trays on the table and I pulled the chair out for Bella.

"Just planning a hunting trip, we haven't been on a long one for about a month." Emmett said joyously, probably thinking about the possibility of hunting a bear. However, I was dreading the coming separation. I tried not to let them see that, knowing that I could not hide from Jasper, and focused on eating the cafeteria food in front of me.

"When we thinking about ditching on Friday, going up to Alaska and then being back on Monday morning by the time that we have to go to school so that you and lover boy and still be together."

Bella bit her lip. "Do we have to be gone that long?" She asked, and my heart soared. She still wanted to stay with me.

"Yes."

"Alright, do I have to stay that long?"

"Yes." Jasper said this time.

"She won't." Alice giggled.

"Bella!" Emmett groaned.

"I can stay until Sunday, I want to be back by midday."

Rosalie scoffed.

"What Rosalie?" Bella asked.

"The way that you talk, you would think that you would die from spending an extra 18 hours away from each other."

"Your mate can hunt with you, you two do not have to be separated like we do. And I know that you two don't like being separated."

"But Edward is not a vampire." I think that that was the first time that she has even said my name.

"But I am, remember?"

"And I don't like being separated either." I chimed in. They all stopped talking and turned to look at me.

"You don't?" Emmett asked me. Emmett and Rosalie looked quite shocked.

"No, why is that such a shock?"

"What the human feels can't be the same as what we feel." Rosalie scoffed.

"You think that just because I am human that I can not miss her like you miss Emmett?"

"That's exactly what I mean, we don't just miss our mates, it's so much more than that."

"I know that. It's like part of you is missing. I can't breather properly when she is not near me. It's more than just missing her. There is this….pulling sensation if she is not next to me."

They were all staring at me in shock.

"What?" I asked them.

"Bella obviously told the human." Rosalie said, sticking her nose in the air and shoving away from the table. "There is no way that the human can feel the same that we can. Bella probably doesn't feel the same way that we do." She stood up and walked away from the table. But Bella stopped her. I looked next to me, shocked. I had not seen her get up. But she was grapping Rosalie on the upper arm, so tight that she would have broken my arm, with her lip pulled back over teeth and her eyes black a flint. A part of me was glad that she was facing the wall, and that there was nobody between us and the wall. She looked like a vampire now, and that was bound to draw attention.

"How dare you!" She hissed at her sister. "How dare you say that about how I feel about him! You don't know anything. You are just so jealous of him and of everybody else that the fact that he might feel as strongly for me as Emmett does for you! That we feel stronger about each other then you and Emmett do! I have put up with you for to long Rosalie! I have dealt with you for years but I won't deal with you insulting him!" She hissed. With that Bella grabbed my hand and pulled me from the cafeteria, still fuming, towards my car.

She stopped when we got to the car and waited by the passenger side door with her arms folded across her chest waiting for me to unlock the car for her. But I didn't. Instead I dropped the backpacks that I had thought to pick up when we left and wrapped my arms around her. She buried her head in my chest and started to sob, but I wasn't sure if she was sad or angry. Either way, that didn't matter. I pulled her tighter to me, wishing for the thousandth time that I was as strong as her. I made soothing sounds and told her that I loved her because I didn't know what else to do. I told her that Rosalie just didn't understand, though I too was furious at her because she constantly questioned our relationship. She calmed after a few moments and asked me to take her away.

I opened the door for her and got in the other side, starting up the engine and pulling away from the school.

"Do you want to go back to your house?" I asked her, breaking the quiet.

"No, let's go to the meadow." She said just as quietly as I had.

I took her instructions and eventually we wounded up at the forest where there were a bunch of trails. She didn't take me up on of those though. She led me away from them and we walked for in silence.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" I asked her whilst squeezing her hand.

"No. Not yet."

"Alright then."

I don't know how long we tracked for but eventually we got to the meadow. The place was still beautiful and the tall grass was still swaying in the light wind. She led me to the middle of the meadow and sat. I sat next to her and leaned back. The grass was only slightly wet but I had a jacket with me to put on later. She laid next to me and curled into my body resting her head on my chest. I wrapped my arm round her secularly, one hand underneath and supporting my head, hoping that she would start to talk soon.

"I can't believe that she said that." She muttered after a few moments.

"About you or about me?"

"About both, about _us._"

"She just doesn't understand love, She doesn't think that what we have can be 'vampire quality'," I rolled my eyes. "just because I am human. But that doesn't matter. I love you more than anyone has ever loved anybody." I kissed her forehead. She rolled over onto her stomach and folded her arms together on my chest before resting her head on them.

"Liar." She said, grinning softly. She leant up to kiss me lightly on the lips and I almost moaned at the contact. "I love you more."

"Doubt that." I said, knowing that full well, vampire or not, that what I was saying was true.

She leant up to kiss me again but I didn't let her pull away so quickly this time. I took my arm from under my hand and wrapped it round her waist, pulling her on top of me. She didn't object and moved easily, something that I wouldn't have been able to do if she did not want me to. She moaned quietly and my hormone filled body reacted to that, my mind quickly snapping off as I felt the need to do something, anything, just to get her closer to me. I pulled her tighter to me and rolled over so that I was on top of her, supporting my weight on my arms. She put her arms around my neck and tightened them in my hair, making me bring my face even closer to hers. But I was getting dizzy, I needed to breathe. I pulled my mouth away from her lips but kissed across her jaw, and up her cheek as I tried to gulp in breaths of air.

She was moaning underneath me and the sounds spurred me on, I had to be doing something right if she was reacting like this. I could feel myself getting hard and tried to make a mental to try not to let her feel. I ran my tongue over her top lip and she moaned, before opening her mouth to me. I lightly touched my tongue to hers, instantly moaning into her mouth, she gripped me tighter and whimpered, before pushing me back off of her.

I looked at her, thoroughly confused for a few moments, afraid that I had done something that she did not want to do, that I had forced her to do something that she did not want to do. I pulled back voluntary in horror, about to open my mouth to apologize when I realized what I had done. I, the soft, warm human with the delectable blood that sung so sweetly to the woman in front of me, had not only just kissed her with the open mouth, but had stuck my tongue in her mouth.

_You dumb shit._

Her eyes were blacker than I had ever seen before and she was staring at me with a battle waging in her eyes.

"Bella?" I said quietly, not sure if I should move or not yet.

"I am alright, just stay, but just do not move." She said seriously. She started to breathe through her mouth again and slowly started to breathe through her nose. I didn't move for ten minutes while she started to breathe comfortable again, her eyes starting to turn but to the gold that I loved and she started to smile again. "You can move now." She giggled, running her hand through my hair.

"I am so sorry, Bella, I completely forgot about the thirst - ."

"Edward," She giggled, continuing to run her fingers through my hair. "don't worry at all, if anything, I think that this helped."

"I think that being….closer….to you might get easier now." She stared at me, then grinned madly. "And I didn't bite you! I didn't even want to, just the scent was to much!' She leaned up to press a light kiss to my shocked lips. She laughed again but looked suddenly smug.

"What?"

"I can kiss you like that and not even want to bite you, not that I had any doubt, but I must really love you." She grinned up at me and kissed me again.

Bella didn't go back to the Cullen house that night. We went back to my house from the meadow just before five. She called Alice on the way back to the house and asked her to bring some clothes for the next day over. Alice was there by the time that we got there looking sadder than I had ever seen her. I opened the door for Bella, took the bad off of Alice and watched as they embraced like the sisters that they really were. I knew then that everything would be alright, even if things between Rosalie and Bella were a bit rocky right now.

"I can't see how long it will take for you to come back." Alice said.

"I can not be near Rosalie right now, not after what she just did."

"I know, and she was out of line. You know how she is, how she feels about….everything. She will come around, and I can see everything back to normal, I just do not know when."

"Neither do I Alice, neither do I." Bella muttered.

Alice started to walk away and Bella walked towards me. She turned, waved to the both of us, turned forwards, turned forwards, turned back towards us and said "And Esme and Carlisle send their love, they are both going to stay home tomorrow and expect the two of you at lunch time, and they said to say that the two of you are not in trouble.". She waved at us again and then kept on walked through the forest and went in the direction towards the house.

Bella and I did the homework for the day and then watched television for a little while. I started to cook just before my mother got home.

"I have new!" My mother thrilled as she walked through the door. I stopped cutting immediately and turned to watch her bounce through the door with raised eyebrows. She was showing so much enthusiasm, this had to be good news.

"Bella dear, how are you?" She wrapped her arms round Bella's waist and kissed her on the cheek. Then she came over and did the same thing to me.

"Hey mum, what is the news?"

"I got promoted!" She smiled brightly, opening her arms as if expecting applause.

"What! Really! Oh mum congratulations!" I hugged her tightly, kissing her cheek. I knew how much she loved her job, she took it so seriously and to be promoted after only working for so short a time at this branch must make her so happy.

"They said that they loved what I was doing and the amount of work that I put into each case!"

"Oh Elizabeth that is so wonderful, congratulations!" Bella said as she hugged my mother.

Over dinner mother told us everything about the new job. One of the parts of the job, the part that she was hesitant to tell me about, was that she would have to travel to other parts of the state for a few days at a time to do the work. Bella said that I could stay with her whenever mother went away, and that immediately severed any issues with that aspect of the job.

We didn't even need to pretend that I was going to take Bella back to the house because mother went to bed before the usual time that I took her back to the house.

We went up to my bedroom and practically made out until midnight, we only had to stop a few times when things got to heated. We decided that I should try to avoid going into her mouth because of the venom and the sharp teeth but that it was perfectly safe for her to come into mine.

I slept peacefully wrapped round her with her running her little fingers through my hair.

At school the next day we were greeted by Jasper and Alice, they said that Emmett wanted to be there to but that Rosalie would not let her husband near either of us. They said to congratulate my mother for them and Alice winked at me, saying that Ben would be very enthusiastic to greet me in English. I assumed that this had something to do with their date last night. The planning seemed so long ago, though realistically everything happened less than twenty four hours ago.

The lessons passed quickly as I thought about what would happen at lunch time when the two of us went back to the Cullen house and spoke to Esme and Carlisle.

At the beginning of lunch we went straight to the forest where I jumped onto Bella's back, and she ran me back to the house. They were already outside standing and waiting for us on the porch when we got there. As soon as I was put back on the ground Esme rushed over and hugged Bella in a tight embrace.

"Oh Bella dear, I am so sorry about what happened. But you just must come back, alright, you to need to talk about what happened." She looked as if she might start to cry.

"Honestly mum, everything will be alright, Alice has seen that much, but we just don't know when."

Carlisle came over to hug his daughter whilst Esme hugged me, apologizing for her daughters behaviour. "She absolutely should not have questioned your love for Bella! Even the other humans can see it!"

We went and sat inside at the dining room table where there was lunch for me on a plate on the right hand side. I ate quickly as they talked about everything that had happened. They kept on saying things like "Rosalie just does not understand." And more than once the jealousy that Rosalie seemed to hold for me was brought up.

"You continue to say that Rosalie is jealous or me, but I do not understand why she would be." I said after a while.

"Part of the reason why Rosalie makes fun of the humans so much is because she wants to be one so much. She would give anything to be human again and she would probably even give up Emmett." Carlisle said.

"She would give up Emmett!" I questioned them, shocked.

"Yes, and we all know that, even Emmett. I know that that saddens my son and Rosalie must to but they never speak about that. Rosalie wants children and as a vampire she can not. She would do anything to get them."

"But I thought that she loved Emmett." I said, the sudden fury making me flush. How dare she say that my feelings for Bella were not strong enough when she would give up Emmett! "Wait, was that what you meant the other day, when you said that we might feel stronger for each other than Rosalie and Emmett?" I asked directly to Bella.

"Yer."

We went back to school after that to be sure that we would not miss any other classes.

Time was going quickly that I could hardly keep a track anymore. Bella didn't go back to the house for another week and didn't stay for the day until the Saturday after that. She did not go on the hunting trip that Emmett had planned either and stuck to hunting either by herself or with one of the others. Whenever either Rosalie or Bella went to a room the other one left, we could not even have lunch together anymore and things were still quite tense.

Before I knew what had happened, a month had passed and I was staying over at the Cullens because my mother had to go to Tacoma for the week. We were only going to stay the night at the Cullen's, the rest of the time we would be staying at my place.

The time that I spent with Bella was blissful, I could not believe that I never wanted to move to this place. I loved her more and more everyday and often found myself over whelmed. Bella said that she felt like that to, that she thought that this had something to do with her being a vampire but I thought that even if we were both humans that things would still be like this. But I knew how happy it made her when she found out that I felt that way to though she still believed that she loved me more than I loved her.

Over the next three and a half months my mother went away another three times. The days started to pass quickly, to quickly for my liking for every moment was precious. There were tests and studying and family dinners with my mother and spending the nights with the Cullens, and of course the constant sleep over's that Bella and I had almost every night. She only didn't come if she had to hunt. Our relationship didn't advance so much physically, which I was fine with, though my body disagreed with my mind far too often much to my embarrassment and Bella's, though she would never admit, enjoyment. I don't know why my situations were so enjoyable to her, I think that she just liked knowing that she had a great affect on me, as if my pulsing blood and beating heart were not enough for her. Though our physical relationship didn't advance to much we grew closer than before, I knew almost everything about her and she defiantly knew everything about me, there was just so much more to her.

Before we knew what was happening, Rosalie was picking out a dress for the graduation ceremonies the next day and Esme was deciding whether or not to add the disgusting yellow graduation caps the to frame that held all of the past graduation caps. They were very old, some of them at least, but none of them looked as hideous. They looked like somebody mixed yellow paint and puke together. Rosalie had eyed hers with distaste and dropped them on the couch when she got home the days that they got them, and Alice had screamed when she saw what she would have to wear the next year. I was over at the Cullens and sitting with the men of the family. Emmett was telling us about the honeymoon that Rosalie had insisted upon and they were giving him suggestions on where to go. She wanted to go back to Paris, Emmett wanted to see Africa and they both wanted to go to Asia. They never booked the flights to far in advance, never knowing when they would want to leave a certain place. I didn't want to know why, but thought that that had nothing to do with the scenery.

"Hey baby, getting any further along on the plans?" Rosalie sang as she strutted into the living room. She totally ignored me as usual but I was used to that.

"Good, what about the dress finding."

"Don't know why you bother, the thing will be off as soon as – "

"Shut up Jasper." Rosalie snapped. "I think that I found the right one." Her eyes softened as she talked to Emmett and sat on her husbands lap. I took this as my queue to go to find Bella. I told them so before walked quickly from the room and up the stairs.

"In here Edward." I heard Alice call from her bedroom as I walked past. I stopped and looked at the door, before turning back and opening it and walking inside. Alice was sitting in the middle of the bed a looked up to smile at me before changing the song with the remote.

"Hey Alice."

"Hey."

"Alright so what about this one?" Bella asked. I turned my head towards the door and my breath caught in my throat, she was so beautiful. Not just beautiful, but sexy. She was wearing a midnight blue dress that just made the half way point on her thighs. It was tight and hugged all of her curves and the colour went wonderfully with her complexion and her hair. Her light golden eyes flickered over at me and stared transfixed at my face as if she was seeing the beautiful thing, before she looked away looking embarrassed.

"Yer, that's the one." Alice giggled, not oblivious to my totally obvious ogling.

"Alright, just let me go and get changed then we can get one for you." Bella went back to the bathroom.

"Why are we finding clothes?"

"Rosalie wants to go to Seattle to go clubbing after the graduation tomorrow so we are all going to go." I raised my eyebrows. "I got some stuff for you too, they are in Bella's room, the shirt matches with her dress."

"If you knew what one I was going to wear than why didn't you just tell me!" Bella exclaimed from the bathroom.

"Because this way was just so much more fun."

"Do you want to come Edward, we don't have to go." Bella told me as she walked from the bathroom to sit next to me on the bed.

"No we should go." I told her back. I defiantly wanted to go, especially if she was going to be wearing that dress again.

"You still got your fake ID?" I nodded. "Alright, we can ask your mum if you can stay over and than we can go to Seattle."

"She will say yes, it's just a good thing that they graduate on a Friday." Alice muttered, looking at a magazine.

"Are we going to stay in Seattle for the night or come back here?" They both looked up at me.

"Well we were going to come back here." Alice said, starting to smile brightly.

"But we should stay up here, make a night of it." They looked at each other in excitement. "Is that alright guys?" They waited for a moment before starting to squeal. I took that as a yes. "Alright, lets go and ask your mum, it's a Thursday night anyways, you need to get home."

"Ah yes, the tacos." I groaned as I got up off the bed. Bella had been invited over for dinner tonight and had accepted. We walked hand in hand back towards the front door and said goodbye to the others before I started the car (gladly opening the door for her and still enjoying the way that she responded ). She hummed along to the songs that were on the radio .

"Hey mum." I called as we walked through the door. She came bustling from the kitchen and gave us both a hug, asking us how our day was as she went back to the kitchen to continue to cook.

We ate mostly in silence, not knowing what to say but being comfortable all the same. I looked over at Bella after we had finished, asking her with my eyes if I should ask my mother yet. She nodded her face, a beautiful smile lighting up her pretty face. I shook myself mentally before she could see that I was, once again, in complete awe of her beauty.

"Mum?" I spoke softly as I got up to stat gathering the plates. Bella got up as well and put her napkin, that was full of food, on the plate before taking the two that I carried and taking them to the bin.

"Yes Dear?" She hadn't said my name in more than a month. I internally sighed, but now was not the time to mope.

"You know how Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie are graduating tomorrow?" She nodded her head quickly. She had wanted to come to the graduation ceremony but had to work. "Well after the even they are all going up to some fancy restaurant in Seattle to celebrate and they invited me to go with them."

"How late will you be back?" She didn't seem opposed.

"We were thinking about just spending the night up there, instead of driving back."

My mother looked thoughtful for a few moments before nodding her head. "Esme and Carlisle are defiantly alright with this?"

"Yes." We chimed together.

"Alright then, but just remember to call me when you get there."

"Of course mum." She smiled gently at us both before she hugged us both goodnight, saying that she was going up to bed.

"Well that went well." I said as I wrapped my arms round Bella's cold waist. I all but purred in content.

"Yes," She whispered against my neck as she wrapped her arms round my neck. I pulled her closer to my, a subconscious reaction. "now all that we have to do is survive the ceremony." I looked at her. "Emmett always makes a big deal of things, Rosalie gets pissy at him, Jasper tries to calm everybody and for some reason Esme and Carlisle get all proud, no matter how many times that we graduate." We both chuckled.

"Your family is crazy."

"Yer but we love them all the more for it." There was no denying that.

We went up to bed and, like every night, she held me while I slept and hummed in my ear until her dream self could take me away.

True to her word, the family was completely crazy the next day. The normal classes were canceled and the ceremony was not compulsory, plus didn't start till twelve. However, at ten Bella and I went back to her house to find Emmett whining on the second story, though he could be heard from the living room even with the insensitive hearing of a human. Rosalie started to scream at him before yelling at Alice to get the new eye shadow back. Alice, how had been comforting Jasper and usually jumped at the chance to dress anybody up scrambled from the couch to fetch whatever Rosalie wanted. Esme was apparently in Rosalie's room and Carlisle was sitting in the living room looking happy. Jasper was just sitting on the couch all but pulling out his hair. I smiled sympathetically at him as he mouthed the words 'help me' at me. I smothered my chuckle as my love sighed.

She shock her head and went over to Jasper. I sat next to him and put my hand carefully on his shoulder, not wanting to take him by surprise. He relaxed noticeably and sighed when he felt my happy and amused vibes.

"Thankyou, now just stay like that." He smiled happily.

"So are you ready to go?" I said as I looked him over. Her was wearing all black. A black dress shirt that was tucked into black pants, and of course slightly worn black converses. I was surprised that Alice let her husband wear that, though he seemed to get away with dressing much more casually than the others. I think that she secretly loved the way that he dressed.

"I've been ready since eight. All that I needed to do was shower because I was covered in dirt."

"Do I even want to know?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably not." He grinned.

"- I don't even want to go, plus the gowns are so ugly and then Rose will be up- " Emmett's voice was drowned out by the crack of thunder that suddenly shot thru the sky like a cameras flash, "Plus we could be playing baseball!" Emmett exclaimed.

"Do you not remember what happened the last time that we played that game?" Bella asked her brother.

"There are no nomads round this tome though."

"So Emmett is like this every time that you graduate?" I asked Jasper quietly.

"Yer," Jasper sighed. "and minute now he will start to complain about how boring the ceremonies are."

"-plus they just go on and on!" Emmett could be heard as he walked back up the stairs.

"Only an hour till we get to go." Jasper groaned at my words and buried his head in the seat cushion. Carlisle chuckled at his 'oldest' son and continued to read the paper.

At eleven thirty we were all loaded into the cars and speeding towards town and the local high school. Everybody seemed to already be there because there were latterly no cars. Usually you would pass one or two but this time the town looked deserted. I wondered briefly if everyone in town came to these sort of things.

My question was answered shortly after.

We had difficulty finding a car park and had to park on the street, walking through the wet grass to get to the hall, Rosalie and Alice in their three inch heels and bitching the whole way there. I attempted not to laugh at Jasper, who looked like he was about to take a snap at one of them. Alice must of sensed her husbands discomfort and stopped almost at once, Rosalie, however, was nowhere near as attentive and continued to whine about the nasty mud that was ruined her shoes an the smell of the human food. There was a party or something like that after the ceremony. Emmett didn't seem to be hearing a word that was said, gazing absent mindedly up at the trees and the sky. Obviously Emmett had become quite good at blocking whatever was going on around him. I sighed wistfully, wishing that I too had mastered that particular skill.

"Rosalie." Jasper threatened. Emmett turned to the other vampire and raised an eyebrow, silently saying 'did you really just say that to her?' Did he want to defend Rose, or was he wondering what was going thru his brothers head when he threatened Rosalie.

"What Jasper?" She snapped, turning her gaze onto her brother.

"Stop moaning about – "

"Oh look they are calling your name! You three had better hurry along now!" Esme quickly intervened. I looked over to the hall where the principal was organizing the students into alphabetical order. Everybody else seemed to be there and I was marveling at how a family of vampires with super speed managed to be late.

"Come on, we better go get our seats or there will be none left. " Bella sighed.

There were no seats left, so, we stood for the whole ceremony, the Cullens a little bit too still and me a little bit to not-still.

The A's and the B's were called and when they got to the end of the C's and called 'Emmett Cullen' there was the usual hooting and clapping from people that you have probably never spoken to and Emmett strutted on to the stage, got the certificate and bowed to the audience, who laughed appreciatively. Esme, who had started to all but dry sob at the sight of her son on the stage managed to laugh appreciatively at her son's antics. Carlisle sighed but clapped before putting his arm round his wife to comfort her.

Jasper Hale walked calmly onto the stage and shook the principals hand. He permitted himself a grin when he looked at Emmett, who was hollering and all but screaming 'that's my brother! Yer!' and clapping obscenely loud. Rosalie Hale strutted onto the stage just after her twin and grinned at the audience, obviously loving the attention.

"Ah Rosalie, at least she didn't do that little flirty wave thing this time." Alice sighed mockingly, as if she were remembering some great event. Bella giggled along side her sister. I threw them a questioning look.

"She usually does this little wave thing and ever body wolf whistles for her. When the days of sexism were over and she managed to get away with doing so she did the wave on a daily basis." Bella rolled her eyes. This wave thing seemed like a very Rosalie thing to do. For somebody that constantly worried about her family being noticed or somebody finding out about their secret she was probably the one that garnered the most attention on purpose.

"That's my woman!" Emmett could be heard over the crowd. Well, she garnered almost the most attention on purpose.

They were announced the graduating class and then they al threw their yellow caps up into the air. The humans were hugging each other and one brave girl even hugged Emmett when Rosalie wasn't looking. He accepted her hug and hugged her back happily.

"I can't wait till we get to Seattle." Alice chirped suddenly. Bella looked at her curiously whilst I looked at the students a families that were leaving the area. "We are going to have such a great time."

"So we should get there as soon as possible." Rosalie said as she walked up to us. Emmett and Jasper, who walked over to his wife and scooped her up into his arms, trailed along behind her. Esme consecutively pulled each one of them into a hug, congratulating them.

"Lets get back to the house." Jasper said looking wearily over at the teachers. They had started to move the chairs towards the side of the hall and they were starting to set up the tables that the food would be placed on for those that were going to stay. The others nodded their agreement and we headed back to the cars. I don't know what I had been expecting, because I had never been to a graduation before, but I was a little disappointed at how uneventful the whole thing had been. I suppose that with about one hundred people graduating they wouldn't make such a big deal, but I had expected a much longer ceremonies. That part I wasn't at all upset about. I never seemed to enjoy the big celebrations that other people that I knew liked. Wedding and family reunions and all that never had much of a draw to me and I was always happy to get them over and done with as soon as I could. My mother hand always complained that I had always complained about going to the functions and what not that they would drag me along to when we lived at Chicago, before das had died. Towards the end of Edward Sr.'s life I had often avoided having to go to the parties. But then dad died and I got dragged along again. This ' formal get together ' had been a breath of fresh air compared to the other ones that I had been to and I was glad that my own graduation would be so much simpler than anticipated. I wondered if this was another reason that the Cullens stayed in small towns. There were less people that lived here and less people that visited, which would give them less of a chance of being spotted by somebody that already knew them, risking exposure.

"So what hotel are we staying at?" Carlisle asked Bella as we were driving back home.

"No idea." Bella shrugged, squeezing my hand as she looked back over at me. Only Alice seemed to know the name of the accommodation, and the name of the club, though I was less concerned about that particular aspect of the night. "I think that only Alice knows that."

"Which means that the accommodation will be five star – " Carlisle smirked.

"With a wonderful menu," Said Esme.

"With wonderful soft beds that we won't use." Bella laughed.

"Except for Edward." Esme said.

"Oh! Alice's picky-ness finally serves a purpose." Carlisle laughed.

"What do you mean?" I asked curious, but also somehow knowing. As I said, I always seemed to be somehow intone with other peoples thoughts.

"She always checks over every little detail from the menu, to the spa even sometimes to how close the kitchen is to the room so that we don't have to smell the food or what feathers the donna and pillows are made up of. We never really understood why, except for the kitchen thing, but at least now we have somebody that can actually use her research." Carlisle grinned over at me using the mirror.

I didn't bother to get out of the car when we got home. The others darted from the cars and up the stairs to get the bags and were back after a minute, and then we were speeding off towards Seattle.

The Fairmont Hotel and Resort was spectacular. Only a few blocks away from the Seattle art museum we got a great view of the city, I was looking forward to what it would look like in the night. Thanks to the Cullens maniac driving we were in the city by four though we had to slow because of the traffic. To say that I was surprised when Esme, of all people, started to complain about the lack of speed, would have been the understatement of the century. I didn't know if she and Carlisle would be joining us tonight, because in all honesty I could not imagine them in a club grinding against each other, but what did I know? The receptionist greeted us in a strictly professional voice, flaunting a fake smile that practically screamed that she had better things to do then be here. The Cullens, or Alice, had reserved one of the Cascade suites for each of the couples.

The rooms were huge, with blazing fire places in the living rooms and huge beds with numerous fluffy pillows. Absentmindedly I wondered if Alice had researched the billow brand of this hotel.

I dumped the bags in the bedroom and sat on the comfortable, almost groaning at the feel. Carlisle's car seats were comfortable, sure, but that was nothing compared to this. I let myself fall back onto the bed and grinned at Bella as I saw her flash into the room.

"Having fun?" She grinned, raising an eyebrow.

"I would be having more if you were over here to." I chuckled, holding up my arms signaling that I wanted her to come over to my. She walked slowly, sensually, though I didn't think that she meant to, over towards the bad, to me. I sat up and wrapped my arms round her waist as soon as she was close enough and then pulled her back onto the bed with me.

I turned to face her on the bed and she mimicked my position, we were so close that out noses were touching. Looking into her golden eyes, I felt myself get lost, or as Bella joyously called it, 'dazzled'. She had discovered that I was somewhat like the other humans that had a shred of self reservation and could be dazzled when she had made me run into a wall because my mind still wasn't working properly.

"So, we still have a few hours before we have to get ready, what do you want to do?' I asked her brushing my lips against her once, twice.

"Well, we could go down to the gym," I raised an eyebrow, what could Bella do at a gym? ",they have a steam room and stuff like that down there."

"Alright," I shrugged, first getting off the bed then pulling Bella off after me. "but I didn't bring my swimmers."

"Alice packed some for you." That didn't surprise me. I told Bella so and she just laughed, telling me that it shouldn't, and that Alice usually packed their bags for them anyways.

Why I though that this was I good idea, I have no idea. The whole situation is Bella's fault. Not only was she the one that suggested the steam room, but she can make me do anything. So now, here I was sitting in the steam room of the hotel completely uncomfortable with a blissfully unaware Bella tucked into my side with my arms over her shoulder.

After Bella had convinced me to go to the gym and the steam room with her we had gotten up and gotten dresses before going to the recreation area. The gym was practically empty with only a few people roaming about but Bella appeared to know were she was going. She led me past the treadmills and the weights, past the door to the pool and into the room where the steam room and other aromatherapy things were. She went into the connecting female dressing room to put her bag in one of the lockers and I looked round curiously.

I don't know if you have ever been in a steam room, but if you go in one and you are not wet then you feel really weird. So, I used the shower next to the steam room first then went to wait for Bella in the steam room. I don't know what I was expecting her to be wearing, because she has put clothes over the swimmers that she had put on up in the room, but the revealing two piece that she was wearing was not what I was expecting, and did absolutely nothing to help my current situation. If that two piece wasn't enough, the fact that she had used the shower after I had and was now dripping wet, pulling her long hair over her shoulder as she walked in, was my undoing. She noted my stunned expression with a look of confusion and pure innocence before settling herself into my side while I attempted to rearrange myself and tried to think of the most disturbing or monotones thing possible.

_Baseball, baseball hat, piano keys, Emmett, Oh! Emmett, Emmett works, alright…..Emmett in a two piece, Emmett in the two piece that Bella is wearing. Alright, there we go._

I sighed in relief and Bella looked up at me obviously bewildered by my confusing reactions. I just smiled at her and brought her closer to me.

I had just stepped out of the shower, and it was nearing eight o'clock. Alice had come to talk to us an hour earlier and told us that she wanted to be on the way to the club by nine. Bella made me have first shower saying that by the time that I ordered food, got the food delivered and then ate she could already be ready.

"Hey, I left the menu of the bedside table, room 718." She said as she slipped past me into the bathroom, leaving me to get dressed in the room. I got dressed in to black dress pants and a midnight blue button up shirt to match the colour of Bella's dress. I rolled the sleeves up to my elbows and took a look at the menu, finally deciding to get the spaghetti. I placed my order with the bored hotel employee and amused myself with watching Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End. I was up to the part where they go to Singapore when the water in the shower stopped and twenty minutes later there was a knock on the door. I went and answered the door, took the food off of the delivery boy and got some money from my wallet to tip him. I heard the bathroom door open but paid that no attention, I knew that once I looked at her I would not be able to look away. Apparently, the delivery boy was in the same situation. I looked back up at the boy to hand him the money to see the boy staring over my shoulder, mouth open and eyes wide.

_Don't look, don't look, don't look, don't look._

"Umm?" I questioned him, giving the boy a look that clearly said ' get your eyes off my girl fucker '.

The pervert boy snapped his eyes over to me, blinked fast a few times and swallowed repeatedly before stretching out his hand . I put the money there then slammed the door in the guys face.

"You alright?" Bella asked me.

"Yer but that guy just – " And then I couldn't talk. Bella was dressed and had her make-up on, and, if possible, she looked even sexier and even more beautiful than she had the first time that I saw her in the dress. Now don't get me wrong. Bella is beautiful in anything, she can be wearing this….material, really there was no point to even attempt to call this a dress, or jeans and a t-shirt. I think that I actually the t-shirt, that was Bella just being Bella. But this, this was a new extreme. The dress seemed much shorter than I remembered and with the smoky eyes thing that she had done with the make up she practically oozed lust. Did the woman want me to combust?

"Edward?" Bella asked shyly, looking bashful, like she would be blushing if she could. I made some kind of strangled noise in response, resembling a nearly dead animal that had just been run over. She seemed to be genuinely concerned now, though I suppose that she didn't get people chocking at the sight of her everyday no matter how beautiful that she was. She took two steps towards me in her two inch heels and I snapped out of my retrieve.

"Bella you look…."

She smiled shyly, looking up at me from under her lashes and a bit my lip trying to hold in the groan.

"Come, eat, we need to get going soon and I don't want Alice to rip you apart."

"Alright," I nodded dumbly, slowly walking towards the bed, unable to take my eyes off of her before realizing that I was now acting like the horny teenage boy that I always said that I would never be, but shit she was making this hard on me, no double meaning intended. I ate silently wile Bella sat reading on the bed next to me, glancing up occasionally to gaze at me or to watch the movie. When I was done I put the lid back on the tray and put them by the door. I freshened up and sat next to Bella on the bed and wrapping my arms round her, trying not to notice exactly just how much skin that I could feel.

"Looking forward to tonight?" I asked her at ten to nine.

"Yes," She grinned up at me. "We haven't been to a club in years." We were interrupted by a loud banging on the door, that was more than likely coming from an annoyingly small pixie on the other side.

"Alice, it isn't even nine o'clock yet." I told her as I opened the door.

"Yes," She said back. "But you two are ready now, and so is everybody else." Alice looked stunning in a jade green satin dress that had a bow just underneath her chest and went to about mid-thigh with black three inch pumps.

"Let's go." Bella said as she walked past me with a clutch in her hand, grabbing my hand with her free one. Just down the hall the other 'children' of the family were waiting for us. Jasper and Emmett were dressed similarly to me, but Jasper was wearing a green shirt and Emmett a black which was Alice's doing no doubt. Rosalie was wearing a reveling, tight, short dress that was, ironically, blood red and black pumps.

"What about Esme and Carlisle?" I asked them.

"They decided not to come, they have something else planned for their night." Jasper shrugged, taking Alice into his arms.

"Let's go!" Alice squealed, she was starting to vibrate. Rosalie strode past us without a backwards glance, her icy demeanor never taking a break. Emmett walked after her and winked at me as they passed. Alice, still squealing slightly pulled Jasper along behind them. Te amount of patience necessary to be married to her was astounding and made my respect for Jasper heighten. Bella chuckled at her sister's antics and we walked together, hand in hand, after them.

It seemed that Alice had gone all out; she had even hired a limo to take us to the club. Carefully trying not to think about the last time that I had been in a limo, I climbed in after the others and closed the door behind me. The driver took of immediately and the car filled with chatter immediately, with the soft base of one of Rosalie's dance songs filling the car quietly.

"So you ever been to a club Edward?" Emmett asked me casually as he leaned back on the seat, one arm thrown over Rosalie's shoulder.

"Nope, underage, remember?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Emmett, we appreciate the fact that you had little to no morals in your time as a human but Edward is a good boy, a law abiding citizen. We have influenced him enough by taking him now, don't try to take any his innocence anymore than that." Jasper said teasingly.

"Take away his innocence?" Emmett said with a screwed up face. "You make me sound like I am trying to sleep with the kid or something like that."

Jasper snorted in laughter and I rolled my eyes.

"Ohh, Bella is jealous!" Alice giggled. I looked at Bella and saw that she was glaring at her brothers, and now at her sister.

"Am not." She sniffed.

"Are to."

"Am not!"

"And here I thought that we were all responsible seventy plus year olds." Rosalie said dryly.

"Yes but Alice there takes joy in acting like a child." Emmett said poshly, earning a glare from his wife.

"Coming from the giant child." Jasper rolled his eyes.

"What – "

"Is that where we are going to?" I asked openly, hoping to break up the almost definite fight that was about to happen.

There were people lined up on the street and I could already here the loud music coming from inside.

Alice squealed quietly again. "I can take that as a yes then." I chuckled. The driver pulled up in front of the place and everybody turned around to look at us. I wasn't to surprised, I would probably turn to look if somebody turned up in a limo.

Rosalie strutted out, obviously loving the attention that she was getting and after somebody wolf whistled at her Emmett followed her, growling. Jasper led Alice out and I followed, offering my hand to help Bella. I could feel the eyes following us as we walked towards the front of the line and I wondered why we were pushing in, looks or not that shouldn't be allowed.

"My name is Alice Cullen, we are on the list." Alice told the bouncer, a huge guy with tattoos all over the top of his arms. The guy checked the list, nodded and let us through.

I could here the people behind us whispering 'Cullen, have you heard of a Cullen?' 'Maybe….'

I just wrapped my arm tighter round Bella's waist.

**Alright, So, just a few little side notes, the last time that Edward had been in a limo was at his dad's funeral. Review please! Reviews are better than Edward with a hard one. **


	13. Chapter 13 Remember?

Hey everyone! So, I am back sorry that the wait was so long but as soon as I got back I had another six assignments waiting for me, oh joy.

I just wanted to answer some questions about the story. Viktoria Seline asked me about Edwards mother telling him about the cases that she worked on, and how that would have been confidential. I thought about that after I had written it but figured that she wouldn't tell him very much, just the bare details and she wouldn't mention any names so it wouldn't be that much of a big deal, plus it's only a fictional story.

The length of this chapter is only about half of what they usually are, which is irritating, but I just wanted to update something! Hopefully the next chapter won't be to far away, I'm off to write some more :)

Thankyou so much for the reviews! They keep me writing.

Edward Point Of View –

I groaned and rolled over in the oversized bed. The rare sunlight was streaming through the curtains that were not fully drawn. I wearily cracked open my hesitant eyelids, mindful of the splitting headache that was becoming harder and harder to ignore as I woke up. Bella's face, starting to shimmer slightly from the sunlight, was the focus point of my vision. She was smiling slightly, but the slight crease between her eyebrows told me that she was worried about something. With the way that she was looking at me, I guessed that that something was me.

"Sleep well?" The Angel asked me. I could merely grunt in reply.

You are probably confused, right? You probably expected some awesome and exciting story about clubs and flashy lights and Bella and I dancing together right? Maybe even a little groping? Some serious making out? Yer, well that's what I wanted to, fuck I wish that I could give you that story. My bad. Anyways, whilst I wish that I could tell you that story, truth be told, I don't remember much past the first twenty minutes.

I remember that I was mildly surprised that the bouncer did not ask to see our ID's because we looked so young but I was not going to question anything. I was just excited to get into the club, and questioning the sly little smile that Alice was constantly sending over her should at me. I assumed that Alice had paid her way in or had already assured them that we were all over age somehow.

Basshunter's 'Angel In The Night' was blaring through the club as we walked through. Rosalie and Emmett went straight to the dance floor and I didn't pay anymore attention to them, knowing that the dancing defiantly would not be pg rated. Jasper and Alice led Bella and I towards one of the tables on the upper level of the club. The staircase were made of metal with glass floors, which was kind of stupid because almost every girl in here was wearing a dress and anybody that was standing underneath the stair case could see up them. With a start I realized that that might be the point. I pulled Bella tighter to me and looked down, relieved to see that the only people that were sitting underneath the stair case were groups of girls and a few guys that were already preoccupied.

The table reminded me of ones that they have in pubs. They were tall and round and could comfortably only seat four people. There were four stools round the table and we each took one, Jasper glaring at one guy that way making his was over, eyes set on Alice. The guy suddenly got blasted with whatever emotion Jasper was sending at them and then ran off in the direction of the bathrooms. I raised ann eyebrow at Jasper who just smirked and kissed Alice on the forehead.

"We should get drinks!" Alice thrilled excitedly.

"Why?" Bella laughed. "We have no use for them."

"But Edward does!" The three of them looked at me.

"We are not getting him drunk." Bella said flatly. I stiffened in surprise, in all honesty I had not even thought about drinking alcohol tonight.

"Why not?" Alice pouted.

"I don't want to get drunk." I told them knowing full well that this would not deter Alice even a little bit.

"But it's a human experience!"

"One that I do not want to have!" I had seen one to many drunken people to know that I did not want to potentially lose control like that and make an ass of myself. Nor did I want to be hung over tomorrow.

"I agree with Edward there." Bella chimed in.

"But why!" Alice whined.

"Because drunk people make fools of themselves!" I argued.

"But I don't remember ever being drunk. If you got drunk you could tell me what happens."

"Ask one of the other people around here."

"'S not the same." She muttered. "At least have one drink!" She brightened up again. I didn't see the harm, It was just one drink right? So I nodded.

_Big fucken mistake._

"Yay!" Alice jumped off of the stool before running towards the bar. Jasper sighed and went after her.

"Well, this should be interesting." Bella muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"Alice always gets her way."

"You think that she will try to get me drunk anyway?"

"She will probably just try to convince you, but if you don't want to then don't." She looked over at me pleadingly. I nodded, not quite sure what Alice could do to convince me but trusting Bella anyway.

As usual, she was right.

Moments later Alice came back towards us with a bright smile on her pixie face with Jasper, an excited Emmett and a put out Rosalie trailing behind her. She was carrying a tray with eight drinks on it and I felt my eyes pop open slightly. She was seriously when she said that she wanted me to get drunk.

"You don't expect me to drink all of that do you?" I asked her.

"No," But she smirked. "I just had to be realistic. If there are eight of us than we need eight drinks don't we?"

"And how did the bartender know that there were eight of us?" the smile slid off of her face.

"Incase anybody sees."

"They will see only me drinking anyway."

"Look Edward we can do this the hard way or the easy way – "

I grinned, knowing that I had her caught. _Success! Mission accomplished!_!

_You have been spending way to much time around Jasper._

"If the boy isn't even going to drink then why are we waiting? The song is almost over. Lets just go and dance." Rosalie said. I listened closely to the song a realized that it was a new dance song that she had been complaining about. I had been at the house and they were watching the music video for the song. Rosalie said that she thought that all the girls looked like trashy try hard's. I thought that they looked like Jessica and Rosalie's love child but decided not to voice my opinion. I liked having no broken bones thankyou very much and was sure that had I said anything that my body would not have remained intact.

Despite my unwillingness to get drunk I had missed spending time with Emmett and Rosalie must have known that. Whenever Emmett and I started to talk Rosalie would call him away and he, who was completely devoted to her, would run of with an apologetic smile. So, as soon as she had finished her sentence I reached over and grabbed the shot off of the tray and drank quickly, trying to ignore the burn that accompanied the harsh liquor.

_On the plus side shots seem to be good vampire thirst practice. Do you have the urge to drink anybodies blood?_

I cleared my throat as I put the glass back on the tray that was now in the middle of the table. Emmett and Rosalie pushed another table over to the one that we were sitting at and then sat on the stools. Emmett was looking at me almost as eagerly as Alice was, who was practically bouncing in her seat. Rosalie looked angrier than she had before and I wondered if she too had had a bad experience with alcohol before.

"How do you feel?" Alice asked eagerly, her high voice practically a squeal. Any higher and only the dogs and the bats would be able to hear her.

"The same as usual."

"Nothing at all different?"

"Nope."

"Well what are you waiting for have another one!" She shoved another drink into my hand and I looked at the blue liquid wearily. I took a cautious sip, before drinking more thoroughly. It tasted wonderful. Before long I was done with that one but decided to take a break, despite Alice's constant badgering.

"Just one more slip, please please please please please please please please please!" She squealed.

And so I did.

And that's pretty much everything. I have no idea what I did, and I don't think that I really want to. All I know is that you never, ever, trust Alice.

"Headache?" Bella asked me softly. Most likely knowing that anything loud would make things worse right now. She started to stroke the hair that was starting to fall into my face as I looked over at her.

_Please let her have locked the door, I don't think that I could stand Emmett right now._

I nodded weakly again, cringing at what the movements did to my head. The bed was swaying. I quickly closed me eyes again and reached my hand behind me in search of the bedside table.

She giggled lightly, I imagined that I looked quite ridiculous. "Dizzy?"

"Yes." I whispered. My hand successfully found the bedside table and the spinning stopped as I gripped on tightly.

"Take this." I felt the bed shift twice and when I reopened my eyes Bella was holding a glass of water in one hand with a bottle of pills on the bed next to her knees, knees that were folded Indian style in front of me, and a glass of something green in the other hand. I looked at the green thing more intently then the water, then looked up at her, hoping that this was some kind of vampire drink that she was trying and did not expect me to go anywhere near.

_Maybe like that wheatgrass shit that people drink, but mixed with blood._

"Don't give me that look Edward, this stuff helps. Drink it first." She handed me the glass and put her now free hand under my elbow to help me sit up. Without thinking about what I was about to do, I quickly drank the whole thing, scrunching up my nose at the taste. She took the empty glass away from me then handed me the water. I took a sip, took the two little white pills that she gave to me then swallowed them two. She took back the glass after I had another drink and watched me lay back on the bed with a smile on her face. She laid next to me and I curled up into her side, burying my nose into the spot between her neck and shoulder, not caring how pathetic that I probably looked.

"I am actually surprised that you are this bad, you weren't that drunk last night, but we can use this to our advantage." She giggled. I looked up at her, confused. With this headache I could see no way that what transpired last night or this morning as a good thing. "Alice feels really bad." Bella explained. "Emmett, not so much, he was excited that you were getting wasted and was upset when we took you back to the room. And Jasper was just feeling sorry for himself because I promised that I would make sure that he was around to feel how miserable that you would feel today, then Esme and Carlisle came back to the hotel and told Alice and Emmett off for what they did." She grinned. "Now that was amusing, I wish that you could have been awake for that." She giggled again. I admit that I did smile slightly at this, wishing that I was there and now able to see the 'advantage'. "It was a fun night though." She kissed the top of my head.

"Do I want to know what happened last night?"

"What do you remember?"

"Everything up to the third drink." Her delicate eyebrows rose, a smile tugging the corners of her lips. "I did something really stupid didn't I?" I could feel myself starting to blush and willed the blood away.

_Be a man!_

"You let Emmett get to you. You had another two of those blue drinks because you like how they tasted, but they did not have very much alcohol, so Emmett, knowing what Alice was doing and fully supporting the plan to get you wasted, came up with a bet."

"A bet?" That was totally in character to what I knew of Emmett, but unless Emmett was going to drink to there was no way that I would have agreed to anything. Unless Emmett actually….no.

"For every drink that you had Emmett had one."

"Was Emmett uncomfortable?"

"Very, only just got everything out of him an hour ago and Rosalie will not say a word."

I mused over this for a moment, before a grin lit up my features. "Totally worth it then."

"Oh but that's not all that you did." Bella grinned again, and I felt the smile drop from my face just to be replaced with a frown.

"What else happened?" The headache was going away, if only slightly, but the improvement was noticeable. My eyes were getting used to the light, and Bella's face was glowing even more now that there was more sunlight entering the room. I opened my eyes more, not wanting to miss the sight of the girl in the light.

"You honestly don't remember?" She grinned at me.

I shook me head.

"Apparently we were not the only ones that came to Seattle for the night from Forks." That perked my attention.

"What? Who else came then?"

"Jessica, Mike, Eric, their whole group." She grinned at me as I felt the colour drain from my face. I knew that either they had done something to me, or I had just randomly started to verbally attack them.

And I mean why the fuck had they even come? It's not like they graduated, or had any family that did.

"Remember yet?" I didn't answer straight away but Bella must have taken my silence for a yes. She went on, a sneaky grin lighting up her face. "You know, I thought that the whole thing was quite impressive, and if you hadn't of, then I probably would have but –"

"What are you talking about?"

She looked at me blankly. "You don't remember?"

"No."

"Oh when you went all quite I assumed that you had." That grin was situated on her face again. "The others and I all saw them when we were dancing – "

"Was I dancing too?"

"Yes." She said, even quieter. Her voice took on a new quality that made my breath spike and her eyes darkened, darting to my lips before snapping back up to my face. She cleared her throat and I tried even harder than ever to remember what had happened.

_Think! Think!_

"We were dancing and the rest of us saw them, but they saw us to. They seemed to be pissed off to see us there, but extremely pleased at the same time." I snorted quietly, completely sure what they were so happy about. "After a while you were getting thirsty again so you went back to the table and I went to get you a water, but when I looked up at you Jessica was there." Her voice darkened again, but in a different way this time. She was pissed now. "She was talking to you but I don't think that you really realized at first, you were just looking at the table and playing with one of the coasters." She giggled.

There was a hazy memory trying to break free of the drunken confides of my mind, struggling to surface in this new post-drunken state.

"She was all over you, she started to touch your arm and your chest and then I just got really pissed off – "

I groaned. I could remember now. The previous memory screaming to the surface of my mind. _Jessica was in front of me, her low cut dress a size to small, her puffy hair stiff-looking and battering her eyes lashes at me. She touched my arm with her index finger, slowly running it up and down my arms. At the time I didn't understand what she was doing, but her hand didn't feel right, there should have been somebody else touching me instead._

"_Edward," I though that she was trying to whisper, but the pounding music made that all but impossible._

"_I know you!" I had said, then frowned. "You irritate me, you know that right? Bella doesn't like you either."_

"_Fuck Bella!"_

_I had laughed at that. "I wish!" I continued to laugh._

"You remember something?" Bella asked me quietly, stroking my hair, which apparently now needed to be washed from all the sweat that had gathered there during the past night. I wondered why she continued to touch, hoping that I wasn't grossing her out.

I nodded my head slowly. "I told her that she irritated the both of us." I decided to leave out the 'fuck Bella' part.

"You did?" Bella laughed softly. "That's excellent!" She really, really didn't like Jessica.

I let her have the moment, before asking – "What happened after that? When you got to the table?"

"Well, I basically just told her to piss the fuck off." I just rose my eyebrows at here, knowing her well enough to know that that wasn't all that she wanted to say. I could see that she was angry but was trying to hold back.

"Something else happened and I know that it did Bella, I know that look."

And then the Bella-bomb went off, and she exploded. "She went off at me about how much you wanted her and how I was just standing in the way of you two getting together. She kept on saying how much better she was for you and how great of a couple that the two of you would be compared to you and I." I stared at her in shock of what she was saying. Could Jessica really be that delusional? She already knew that I intended to marry Bella, I though that I had made myself quite clear. "She kept saying that we should stop seeing each other before you got dragged in to far to the cult that we had going on at my place and that she could give you so much more than what I could." Bella's breathing was heavy but I could see the fire dying in her eyes. An ancient sadness that I could not understand began to fill them instead.

"Bella? What's wrong?" I was about to say that what Jessica had said was wrong, otherwise I might have sounded insensitive, but she cut me off.

"And you know what's worse?" She said in a quiet but tight voice. She didn't let me respond. "The fact that she is right, absolutely everything that she said was right."

And how the fuck do you respond to something like that?

I stared at her blankly for a few moments, she wouldn't look at me, expertly avoiding my gaze. Despite how hard I tried not to, I could feel my anger rising. How dare she say that! Didn't she know how I felt about her at all! Didn't she get how much I loved her, or was this just a one sided thing? Was I just some sort of distraction?

Alright, so I knew that I wasn't just some distraction, but still!

"Bella," I said coldly, my voice hard and surprising even me. My voice shook slightly, though I honestly wasn't sure if that was because of how mad I was or because I was scared that she would actually take Jessica's words seriously and do something that I knew that the both of us would regret.

I think that I was always looking for a reason that she would leave me, some why that I would fuck this thing up, even though I never wanted to let her go.

"You don't honestly think that what she said was true do you? You can't honestly think that she would be better for me than you would." I think that I was starting to get slightly hysterical, but I don't think that she could tell that from my voice.

"But she was right!" She looked me right in the eyes now, and this sadness I could understand more, it didn't look so….ancient.

"No she's not!" I sat up like a bolt, then swayed and leaned against the headboard. She was next to me instantly, one hand on my forehead and the other one on the middle of my back. She made soothing sounds in my ear as the room started to go back to normal, and the cold temperature of her skin made me regain the momentarily lost balance quicker.

"She's not better for me than you," I muttered weakly. " That's just not possible."

"But she's human." She whispered as I turned to look at her. "And You are a human, and she could give you a human life with human things that I never could."

"Like what?" I challenged.

"Like a human life."

"I don't want a human life."

"Like being part of society."

"That's highly overrated."

"Like growing old together!" She exclaimed.

"I don't want to grow old with any other girl but you! Even if that's just aging mentally!"

"She can give you kids!"

"I don't want any!" That stopped her. She turned to look at me.

"What?"

"I don't want any kids. I never really did, but if I were going to, they would have to be yours, and you can't have them."

"But Jessica could." She said softly after a few quiet moments.

"But Jessica's not you." The whisper that came from my mouth sounded slightly strangled. She put her hand on my chest, right on the top of my heart, and it was then that I realized that I was topless. I looked at myself before shrugging, and looking back up to see her staring at me.

"The other one smelt like booze." She giggled and I grinned, enjoying the suddenly lighter atmosphere, though I should have known that that would not last long.

"Please don't leave me." I whispered quickly, suddenly, not quite she what I was saying until I already had. Her head shot up from my chest and heart to look my straight in the eye.

"I don't think that I could, even if I actually wanted to."

"You don't want to?"

"No. I probably should, but I can't. I love you to much."

I grinned. "Now I just can't see why that would be a bad thing." I leaned in to kiss her, I had the feeling that everything was as it should be, and that everything would be alright.

She responded to the kiss eagerly, surprising me by fisting her little hand in my hair. I groaned and moved towards her so that my torso covered hers as she started to lean back, my other hand on the other side of her torso.

The headache was all but forgotten as I leaned some more of my weight on her. I knew that even my full weight (you know, times a hundred) would not hurt her, but I still felt ungentlemanly.

_Yes, because making out with your 1901 born girlfriend after you just got wasted, meaning that your breath probably smells horrible, whilst you a half naked is just Soooo gentlemanly to begin with._

She moaned her approval, putting her other hand on my back to get me closer to her and bending her right leg at the knee and using it to stroke my own.

My dick, who had been behaving himself so far this morning (which was unusual to start with) immediately sprang to life upon hearing the little moans that she made. She moaned again, louder this time and rubbed herself against me.

"Fuck." I cursed, unable to help thrusting into her slightly. We were so close, her bare arms against my naked skin felt wonderful and I could help but imagine the time when it wouldn't just be her arms that were bare. I let out another moan just at the thought and she growled, only softly, but loud enough for me to hear and shit, I don't think that she realized how much I loved it when she did that.

And then somebody knocked on the door.

We both froze, and then groaned. We sat up and I fell back on to the bed, my erection throbbing, my head pounding and my eyes wondering as I watched Bella walked over to get the door.

_She's got such a nice ass._

_You're such a pervert._

_You are aware that you're arguing with yourself again right?_

…_..Bitch._

Esme was at the door, smiling at Bella as if she hadn't just interrupted our make out session. She gave Bella a hug and then came over to me. Hopefully she hadn't noticed me discretely rearrange the blankets as I pulled them over top of me.

"How are you dear?" she asked me, putting her hand on my head.

"I've been better." I laughed weakly, my cock just begging for attention, just not Esme's. It was like the poor thing wanted Bella.

"Well I can assure you that Alice is regretting what happened, and Emmett will be."

I grinned, knowing that I was acting like a spoilt little brat that had just ratted out his sibling to his mother, but I felt better knowing that Bella was wearing the shit eating grin to.

"Alright, well I need to go and pack, but we check out in two hours alright. Don't be late."

"Alright mum." Bella said.

"And did you and Carlisle have a good night?" I asked her, trying to be polite but wishing that I hadn't.

She got a mischievous gleam in her eyes and smiled at me. "Oh yer Edward, we had a wonderful time." Before giggling like a school girl and walking from the room.

"Kinda wish that I hadn't said anything right about now." I said slowly, staring at the door.

"You are so lucky that you don't have vampire hearing, there's another reason that I like spending the night with you. I don't have to hear them all going at it."

I put my hand over my heart in mock hurt. "So you're just using me for my bedroom! I see how it is!" She giggled and made her way over to me, swinging her hips as she went. My stray eyes went straight to them and my cock twitched appreciatively. She obviously knew what I was thinking about. She knew me to well.

_Stupid hormonal body._

She reached the bed and bent over, crawling towards me with darkened eyes. "Maybe." She said, before she kissed me passionately. She pulled away way to soon, ignoring my groan. "Come on, we gotta pack up." I looked round the room, surprised at how messy everything had gotten since last night. Why does that always happen in hotels?

Then something that she had said earlier hit me.

"Wait," I said as she started to crawl off of the bed. She rose an eyebrow at me. "You said earlier that if I hadn't of done something that you would have. What did I do?"

She looked at me blankly for a moment. "Oh." Before sitting back on the bed and smiling.

"After Jessica said everything that she did, I was about to hit her but then Emmett came up and stopped me because, you know, I would have been to conspicuous if I threw her across the room with the force of the slap. But then you jumped up and started to tell her off and she got so shocked. And then Mike and Eric came over and started to tell you off because you were telling Jessica off and then you and Emmett started to yell back at them and then I had to hold off Emmett but then you punched Mike in the face, again, an gave the poor kid a nose bleed." She sighed, and then grinned, looking at me from the corner of her eyes. "A very amusing night all up."

"I punched him." I said in shock. She nodded. "Again?" She nodded again. "Huh." I said, then shrugged. "So packing?"


	14. Chapter 14 Attack And Attach

**Alright so I know taht there was a wait, but because of this, I haven't even started my draft for school that is due tomorrow. See what I do for you lot. Reviews are better than apologetic siblings. Love Sarah.**

Bella and I were ready within twenty minutes. We were both showered and dressed and then realized that we still had just over an hour and a half left, so we went back to making out. I wasn't complaining, but fuck I needed to do something about my….issue. Bella had it easy, she could hide her reaction. I was above jerking off when she was in the next room, so I hadn't been able to do anything to relieve myself earlier when I had shower. I mean come on, I did still have some self respect left. The male anonymity was completely unfair.

I couldn't stop kissing her, and she didn't seem to want to stop either. She'd already taken my shirt of, her cold little hands running up my chest and my hands were underneath her shirt on her ribs, twitching to move upwards. And then they knocked on the door.

_Fucking cock blockers. _

I pulled back from Bella and looked at the door, then back to her.

"Sorry." She mouthed at me as I reached over to get my shirt. "Come in." She said louder, though that wasn't really necessary. Emmett and Alice walked in quietly, both eyeing me warily.

"Hey Edward." Alice but whispered.

"Yer, hey man." Emmett nodded.

"Hey," I grinned at them, forgetting that I was meant to be angry. "Thankyou, for this, just by the way. The hangover is just awesome." I let the sarcasm saturate my voice.

"Yer…..sorry about that. We didn't really factor this part into the equation. Or the fact that you would puke everywhere." That perked my attention.

"What?" I looked to Bella.

"Oh, yer, forgot to mention that." She grinned at me. "I guess that it might actually be a good thing that you got that hair cut, I probably would have had to hold it back if you didn't."

"Yer, and that shit was nasty." Emmett's grinned, and I blushed. Bella smiled at me with adoration in her eyes. She loved it when I blushed. I, on the other hand, treated this particular habit with as much distain as my 'ungentlemanly reactions'. I guess that Bella and I would just never agree on some things.

"Is there anything that you would like to say to Edward?" Bella asked them, sitting up straighter with a grin tugging at the corner of her mouth.

They took a deep breath and I was reminded of little children. "We are very sorry that we got you intoxicated without your consent Edward. We ask that you forgive us and we both promise not to do anything like that ever again." They said, perfectly in time in monotonous voices. I took one look at them and cracked up laughing. They both looked and sounded so ridiculous.

"Prick." Emmett muttered as they walked from the room. Twenty minutes later we were all in the lobby waiting for Rosalie and Emmett to make an appearance and deciding who would be riding with whom.

"Well there's no way that I'm riding with these two." Jasper looked at me and Bella whilst wrapping an arm around Alice's little shoulders.

"Why, what's wrong with us?" Bella pouted. I, however, had a faint idea.

"Because with the amount of lust and sexual frustration hanging round the two of you, I would be bound to get a boner for the next three hours. That's not something that I'm looking forward to, so I'll go with Emmett and Rosalie."

Bella stopped breathing in my arms and I felt the blush creep up my cheeks. I knew what he was going to say, but that didn't make hearing it any less embarrassing. Alice snorted in laugher and in order to save face, I looked at her and rose an eyebrow.

"Jealous?" That stopped her laughing.

"Hey- " Jasper started to protest.

"We ready to go?" Emmett asked as he and Rosalie, who was _still_ ignoring me, strode up to us. We nodded and headed to the parking garage.

"See you when we get back." Esme said to the others, looking regretfully between Bella and Rosalie. They weren't talking to each other either. Neither of them had gotten over what happened. I couldn't help but feel guilty about that. What Rosalie said had been out of line but shouldn't they have gotten over it by now?

We were back in Forks in no time, thanks to the Cullens crazed driving, and the fact that I slept through half of it because of the hang over probably helped to past the time too.

When we got back to the house my mother wasn't there. She had left a note on the kitchen table saying that Sue Clearwater needed her, and that she needed to talk to me when I got back.

I was in the kitchen, making myself some lunch when Bella broke the silence. "Hey!" She cried. I looked over to her, startled. "Today is the 4th of June!"

"Yes, dear ." I knew where she was going with this, and flinched internally.

"And your birthday is on the twentieth." Her voice sounded so excited but I would not look at her.

"Yes, I know." She flashed next to me.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Nothing." I took a bite of my sandwhich.

"Nothing?" She looked at me blankly.

"You heard me."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, me and Alice can take care of that."

"But I don't – "

"What about a present then? You've got to help me with this, I suck at buying presents."

"Nope – no presents. You've already given me enough."

"Edward- "

"Alright, I know what you can get me."

"And what would that be?" She asked me excitedly.

"You can change me."

"Edward," She moaned. "Why bring that up, come on, there's got to be something else – anything."

"That's what I want."

"I'm already warming to the idea anyway, I just – " She looked away and bit her lip.

"Just what?" I asked as I put my arms round her waist and got her closer to me.

"I don't want this to be something that you regret, you can't take this back."

"I won't want to take it back."

"Later, your mother is back, but I will be getting you something."

"You know, for somebody who was so against birthdays when they were human you seem quite enthusiastic."

She grinned at me. "But this isn't my birthday, this is yours. And besides, the last birthday that any of us had that signaled any real change was Emmett and that was in 1935. You can't blame any of us for being a little bit enthusiastic."

"Oh." How do you respond to something like that?

"Edward!" My mother thrilled. "And Bella too!" She gave us a hug and a kiss each.

"Hey mum."

"It's good to see you again Elizabeth."

"Do you want anything to eat?" I asked her.

"Oh I ate with Sue." She grinned. "But, I do need to talk to you." I nodded and hopped up to sit on the bench, wrapping my arm round Bella's waist as she got up to sit next to me.

"What's up?"

"I got a call from your Aunt Caroline." I chocked on air, and Bella rubbed my back soothingly. "You alright?" I nodded, so my mother continued. "She's back now, and she was talking to your grandmother, and they want everybody to catch up soon, and it's the perfect timing because it's the summer. We'll probably have to go to Chicago in July for it. Isn't that exciting!" My mother loved my dad's family, obviously she missed them more than she let on. Mother loved social gatherings, not as much as she used to for obvious reasons, but family reunions were one of her favorite things. Me on the other hand, not so much. I didn't really get on with my family, my cousins were all completely different than me, my aunts and uncles all thought that I was delicate or gay just plain weird. I never brought a friend or a girlfriend to any of these things, and never really interacted with them, so I was abnormal. But how is it my fault that I never had or wanted a girlfriend, and that I hadn't had any real friends? So what if I liked reading and piano more than acting like a dumb shit with my stoner friends like some of my cousins did? Apparently I wasn't a normal modern day teenager. Maybe that was why Bella and I got on so well. Even if I wasn't normal, I didn't like having to sit alone for hours on end, getting criticizing glances from my relatives and pretending to make small talk with them when we ate. _But,_ I didn't have to be alone this time. I had a girlfriend this time, a loveable girlfriend that was bound to make the rest of the family adore her. But said girlfriend is a vampire, and Chicago is sunny in the summer.

"Oh." I said, my voice not displaying any of my inner turmoil.

"And yes you are going." Then the phone rang, so she nodded and went to get it. I thanked God that it was a cordless so that she would leave the kitchen.

Bella and I sat in silence for a moment.

"Will you come?" I asked her softly, not wanting to get rejected. "I know that it will be sunny, but it would just be so much easier if you could go to." I had told her about the family reunions after we got back from the whole James thing and she new how the rest of the family treated me.

"There would have to be something that we could do so that I could come, assuming that I am even invited."

"Of course you are!" I told her, shocked that she would even think that she wasn't. Mother already thought of her as a daughter and anywhere that I want she was welcome to.

"I'm sure that we could work something out with the sun, ask your mother the dates and I'll see what I can do." Mother walked back into the room then, smiled as she put the phone back in the cradle.

"Who was that?"

"Rosemary." That was my grandmother, on my dad's side.

"I was just wondering what dates we were going."

"July first to the forth. Do you think that you would be able to come Bella?" Mother looked up at Bella, who looked shocked to be asked though I just told her that she could come.

"Well, I….I would have to ask my parents of course, but there shouldn't be a problem."

"Alright well you let me know and then I will get the flights. Rosemary can't wait to meet you, which is saying something because she really didn't want to meet me." My mother snorted before leaving the kitchen, leaving behind a shell shocked Bella.

We went up to my bedroom after that, my head still throbbing and Bella now smiling shyly at 'being accepted by my family' or something like that.

"How much does it suck that we still have to go to school." I sighed. Everybody apart from the class that had just graduated still had to go to school for another week, which was a complete waste of time because apparently we didn't even do anything – we had already had all of the tests, I figured that we would ditch most of the time.

"Hmmm that's true but think about it, this time next year we would have graduated."

"Hopefully that's not all that would have happened by this time." I muttered, hoping that she didn't pick up the double meaning in my words.

"What does that mean?"

"Ah, nothing." I found it kinda funny that she still didn't know that I wanted to marry her. Normally I couldn't keep anything from her.

She looked up at me but shrugged, then snuggled into my chest.

The next day Bella picked me up at ten to go to the Cullen's place. She had gone hunting with Alice, Esme and Carlisle last night, and was going to consult Alice about the weather later today.

So I heard a knock on the door and went to answer the door, expecting a smiling Bella to give me a kiss hello. But imagine my surprise when instead of affectionate, happy Bella I got a stressed looking Jasper. The shiny Mercedes wasn't in the drive way either, instead a sleek looking black Ducati motorcycle.

"Hey." I said, trying to mask my surprise. Sure I was happy to see Jasper, but was something wrong with Bella?

"Hey, you ready to go?" I nodded and called a goodbye to my mother, than we made our way to the motorbike, where he passed me a helmet.

"Don't you need one?" I said, completely not thinking. He gave me a disbelieving look, then smiled when a looked of understanding crossed my face. "Oh, right." I put on the helmet and got on the back of the bike after him, my hands gripping the sides, I wasn't gunna put my hands round his waist, that just would have felt weird.

"Not that I don't wanna see you or anything, but where's Bella?" I asked him once he revved the engine. Jasper turned round to look at me, then shot a glance at the house.

"I'll tell you in a minute alright? Let's just get away from here first."

"Alright then." I was still curious, and I knew that he knew that.

"Hold on tight." My grip tightened in anticipation and we shot off. It wasn't what I expected. I had never been on a motorcycle before and had never really cared to try. Pictures of smashed bikes and even more smashed bodies had always kind of turned me off the idea. But this, this was amazing. The speed was exhilarating, almost as good as Bella running, and I immediately wanted to try it without the helmet on. We got about half way to the Cullen house and there were no hours that we could see, just forest. There were a few dirt tracks that branched off every now and then and I wondered if there were houses there or something else that was at the end off the trail.

I was more than confused when Jasper turned off into one of the pathways.

He turned off the engine and tapped my leg signaling me to get off, which I did, taking off the helmet once I was standing. Jasper was pacing in front of me, running his hands through his blonde hair. He was tense, I could feel it radiating off of him. Trying to break the silence, I said –

"You didn't bring me out here to kill me with an axe did you?" I smirked. He looked over at me slowly with raised eyebrows, and stopped pacing.

He snorted. "As if I would need an axe."

"True." I shrugged. It seemed to work though. He stood in front of me but was looking over the top of my head.

"Rosalie and Bella got into another fight." He said quietly. I stared at him, shocked. I knew that they were still pissed at each other, I knew that. But the last that I knew they weren't even talking. Though I agreed that not talking at all was worse than not trying to fix the situation, but why did they have to fight?

"But not like the last time." Jazz continued. "We were in public then. Bella was angry but she knew that she had to be discrete. But this time neither of them had to hold back.

"They were louder?" I asked my brother.

"Not just louder." I knew what he was implying.

"Are they alright?" Jasper sighed before he answered the question, but if there was one thing that I liked about Jazz it was that he always got to the point if it was an important issue.

"Bella got most of the damage. Rosalie is a better fighter and Emmett," Jazz hesitated. "The thing that you've got to understand that it's in our instinct to protect our mates. Emmett loves Bella but she attacked Rose and Emmett couldn't help himself." My fist clenched, and I was grateful that Jasper didn't laugh at my human anger. "It was two on one, and they are both better fighters than Bella, but she had more of a reason to fight I guess, so she did some damage too. Emmett's got a few scratches, Rosalie almost lost an arm and Bella – " I could feel the panic start to choke me. If Rosalie had almost an arm and Bella had gotten the worst injury then what was she like? Jazz, feeling this, put a hand on my shoulder and I felt reassured that she was alright and calm. "Bella's all scratched up and Rosalie got her right arm off. By that stage I barged in and saw what was going on, although I swear that I could feel the fury for miles, that's what got me back to the house. I had gone for a run. I think that Emmett had started to realize what was going on because Emmett was just kind of frozen and standing there."

"Why the fuck didn't Emmett stop them then!" I shouted, pissed off at the whole situation and worried sick.

"Think that the poor guy was in shock. But anyways, I tackled the two of them and then Emmett grabbed Rosalie and I got Bella and the arm and we dragged them away."

"But, Bella, but what about…..is she – is she alright?"

"Carlisle was tending to her when I left. The fight only started about an hour and a half ago, went for about an hour, mind you this is including the verbal attacks, but Alice, Esme and Carlisle only just got home about five minutes before I left, and Bella got first priority because she had much more serious injuries. You know that we can reattach ourselves but something as big as an arm can take awhile. It should be about three days before she can fully use the arm like usual, but it should be fully attached by the end of the day. The only thing is that it would make them heal so much quicker if they could hunt but neither of them are in any condition to hunt." Jazz sighed. "But the fight – you know that they were on rocky terms after the last one, but I just don't see how they are going to bounce back from this one. I mean, they were never overly close, not like the relationship that either of them have with Alice, but still, even if they have fought they have never gotten physical, not even when Rosalie was a new born. Though they didn't really get on then either."

"Why?"

"Bella knew what she was getting herself into when she changed – to some extent. Not as much as you do obviously, nobody can know for sure, but she still knew. Rosalie always thought that Bella was stupid for taking the opportunity." Jasper sighed.

"But this is bad, this is really bad. I mean, yer, Emmett and I fight all of the time, but only play fighting and most of the time 's not even fighting, just wrestling. But we never get this far, shit, we wouldn't want to. We don't really want to hurt each other. Esme is absolutely distraught and Carlisle's trying to help the other three and then help to calm Esme. I mean, and can help with the injury stuff coz' I know all about it what wit' the wars and everythin', but none the less, Carlisle is still better. I offered to come to get you because really I'm the only one fit to. Alice is sad because she can't see the out come of this, and if she can she doesn't like what she does."

"Well what can I do to help?"

Jasper grinned. "I can calm everyone, for sure, but nothing works like a mate does, empathic or not."

"So I've gotta go to help Bella." I was just happy that I could help her at all.

"Yer. That's the general idea."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" I went to stand by the bike again. Jasper nodded and sat before I swung my lag round and straddled the bike, putting on the helmet. "Jazz?"

"Yer?"

"What was the fight about?" Jasper turned to look at me.

"Not all of it was about you." That relieved me slightly. "But the main catalyst from what I can get is that Rosalie bought up the whole 'spending time apart' thing like what happened at the cafeteria." I groaned. Jazz revved the engine, spun us round and we headed back to the house. When we got to the garage, I jumped straight off the bike, took off the helmet and went straight to the house. I went through the side door that lead into the living room and was stunned with what I saw. The normally spotless room was covered in feathers, wood and bits of broken china. There was also an Emmett sized dint in the wall right next to the door. But that's not what shocked me the most.

Esme was sitting on the loveseat, shoulders shaking and her hands over her face sobbing into them, trying to muffle the sound as to not alert Carlisle. Knowing that there was no way that I would ever be able to leave her in this state I walked over and sat next to her, wrapping my arms round her shoulders and using the spare hand to pry one of hers from her face. She looked at me with shinning eyes and bite her lip, before letting out a sob and leaning into me, her head finding place in the crook of my neck. I couldn't stand seeing her so sad, people like Esme's weren't supposed to be sad. She was to kind, to sweet to be sobbing, and that just made me angrier at Rosalie.

"Esme, you know that it is going to be alright." She nodded and Jasper flashed to our side, sitting on the other side of her.

"You go see Bella but tell Carlisle tell come." Jasper said. I nodded and kissed her cheek before walked up the stairs. On the second flight I walked past a sullen looking Emmett.

"Edward, man I'm so, so sorry for what – "

"Save it." I snapped before side stepping and walking up the last flight. I didn't look back.

I but ran to Bella's room but stopped when I got in and saw her on the bed. Carlisle was bent over her and she was kicking her legs somewhat. I heard a grunt and Carlisle say "Sorry." Before she let out a small scream. I made a strange whimpering sound and his head slashed over to me. Carlisle smiled at me lightly.

"Esme needs you." I said as I walked over to Bella and Carlisle. Carlisle's eyes widened and he looked at Bella.

"You all set for now?"

"Yer, literally." She let out a breathless laugh.

"Then I'll be back." Carlisle nodded then flashed from the room, leaving me in clear view of Bella.

My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her. "Oh Bella." Her clothes were ripped and there was a scratch on her face that wasn't completely healed yet. Her pant leg had been ripped off and there was what looked like wire wrapped round her leg. But her arm, that was the worst. The wire the had been used on her leg was wrapped round her, started about half way between her shoulder and her elbow, making its way it to the shoulder joint then it moved so that it went round her chest but then came back to her shoulder. She saw me staring at the wires, the pain in my eyes to see her like this and she opened her mouth to talk to me as I started to walk forwards again.

"The wires meant to help to set the bone in my leg, doesn't help a whole let but still works. Plus we need it to hold the arm on so that I don't have to as much, not like at first." She smiled at me. "How's Esme?"

"Distraught." I said shortly, not wanted to sound angry at her, though I probably did.

"And Emmett and Rosalie?" My eyes snapped to her face and narrowed.

"No idea and quite frankly, I couldn't care less." I sat beside the bed and stroked her face, wishing that I could take the pain for her.

"Edward this is as much my fault as theirs." I didn't answer her.

"Are you in pain?" I asked her eventually. She just shrugged.

"Are you alright?" She asked me.

"What?"

"Are you alright?"

"You had your arm ripped off not yet two hours ago and you are asking me if I'm alright. Seriously?"

"But you're upset."

"And you're arm was ripped off!" My voice sounded slightly hysterical. I felt like an idiot because she was the one that was calming me.

"I'm alright honestly, I will be back to normal in no time."

"That's not the point." I sighed ad leaned up to kiss her on the lips lightly. She smiled into the kiss but I sighed and pulled away. "What's all the sticky stuff?" I said, going in to touch it.

"Don't touch that!" She exclaimed. "Could get into your blood system somehow. Don't want to take any chances."

"So that's you venom?" I asked her and she nodded. I couldn't help but to be fascinated by the clear liquid. I was thinking that in such a small amount of time, that her venom could be flowing through my body, that sooner rather than later I would be producing my own.

"Are you alright?" She asked me again. I sighed and nodded.

"Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"I'm thirsty and I need to clean up, but I can't move either way." She sighed, and an idea came to my mind.

"Emmett?" I called, and he was by me right away. Looking at the two of them, the repent in Emmett's eyes I knew that the two of them had already spoken, and that she had already forgiven her brother.

"Yes."

"Do you think that it would be possible to bring blood here? I mean, either bring the animal back here, or somehow get the blood here?"

Emmett looking confused but calculating. "You mean in a drink bottle or something like that?"

"Yer. Would that work?"

He started to nod slowly. "I can get some for the both of you." I knew that he meant Rose. "Alright. Alright, I'ma' go get some drink bottles." Then Emmett was gone.

And Bella was giving me the strangest look.

"What?"

"Only you would think of that."

"It's like take away for vampires; we can call it 'McVamps.'." I grinned and was greeted with laughter from her and from other various parts of the house. I saw Emmett run to the forest with a backpack on his should that I presumed was full of water bottles. I suppose that they just never threw away the ones that I used here.

We were silent for a little bit and I couldn't hear anything else from the rest of the house. "What happened?" I asked her quietly.

She sighed and took a deep breath. "Do you really want to know?"


	15. Chapter 15 Explanations

**Wow guys, thankyou soooooooo much for the amount of reviews on the last chapter, they make me happy. I know that Rosalie is acting like 'Hoesalie' (lol) right now but can I just say that I actually love Rosalie, I mean, not so much in this story, but in the actual twilight books I think that's awesome, her acting this way just fit for the story. And I know that you more than likely want to throw stuff at me right now but I was away on family stuff and am enjoying the holidays and my temporary freedom from school work, even though writing that sentence just reminded me that I have two assignments that I need to finish by the end of the week. Oops.**

**Anyways, on a lighter note, I have started to write chapter sixteen and I am seriously considering putting up an outtake as a different story. It would be chapters or sections of chapters from other peoples point's of views but the fight would be in their from Bella's point of view. Tell me if you would be interested in reading that.**

**However, enjoy and review! **

"Only you would think of that."

"It's like take away for vampires; we can call it 'McVamps.'." I grinned and was greeted with laughter from her and from other various parts of the house. I saw Emmett run to the forest with a backpack on his shoulder that I presumed was full of water bottles. I suppose that they just never threw away the ones that I used here.

We were silent for a little bit and I couldn't hear anything else from the rest of the house. "What happened?" I asked her quietly.

She sighed and took a deep breath. "Do you really want to know?"

I nodded without hesitation. "Definitely." She looked at me blankly, before turning away and taking a breath.

"She stared when I got back. I was earlier than the others and just the three of us were here. She….you remember what she said the last time, when we were talking about the hunting trip?" She looked at me with pleading eyes, but I didn't know what she wanted.

"Yes, she said that we, well, mostly I, couldn't miss you like vampires miss their mates, because I'm not a vampire." I replied.

"And about how the extra eighteen hours wouldn't be a big deal." I nodded. "I probably over reacted at first, this is all my fault really….."

"Bella!"

"What?" She looked at me, stunned.

"This isn't your fault!"

"Not just my fault but if I had of been calmer maybe then the fight wouldn't of gotten so bad, or Jasper would have gotten home before she did this." She nodded to her arm and I flinched.

"Still not you fault. But tell me what happened."

"Yer right….um, when I got back home she said something like 'wow, one night apart didn't kill you then?' And, after the hunt our instincts and emotions are so much stronger – so much harder to fight back, that's why I usually give myself some time before I come to you."

"You do?"

She shrugged. "Just an hour or two, but it's alright because that gives me enough time to get home, talk to the others, get calm and to get cleaned up. "

"Oh." Hadn't known that. "So, what happened then?"

"I snarled at her, and that just riled her up and she said that - ." Bella stopped there and her jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing and her lips pursed tightly together. There was still enough room for me on the bed on her good side, so slowly, as not to startle her I got up to lay next to her. She rolled slightly, wincing as the movement stirred her arm, to lay her head on my chest. "She said that maybe it would have been better if the separation had actually ki – " She took another breath and closed her eyes tightly, her good hand closing into a tight fist. "If the separation had actually killed you because then we could be safe again – we wouldn't have to worry about the secret." I tensed under her. I knew that Rosalie didn't like me, but she hated me enough to want me dead? I couldn't honestly say that that didn't hurt a little, but the hurt was quickly replaced with anger.

What the fuck did it matter what she thought? She was selfish and vain and would give up her mate for a snot nosed little brat that would probably be just as conceded as her. How dare she hurt Bella like that, her own 'sister', just because she was jealous? What kind of sister was she?

So what if she hates me? I've got news for you Rosie – the feelings mutual .

I felt sorry for Emmett.

But I was still kinda pissed.

The prick.

"Edward?" Bella's sweet voice brought me from my thoughts. "Are you alright? I am so sorry that she said that – ."

"Don't apologize for what she did, besides, it's no big deal. It's common knowledge that she doesn't like me – " I snorted. " even the other 'stupid humans' can see that." I sneered, looking to the door as if I could see her.

I heard a snarl from the second story and then Carlisle's voice chastising Rosalie, I assumed that she was the one at least.

"You don't like what I'm saying then don't listen!" I said slightly louder.

I heard Carlisle's voice again but couldn't hear what was going on so I turned to Bella. "She wants to come up here but Carlisle won't let her." I nodded.

"So what happened next?"

"I attacked her, to me, that's like she's threatening my mate."

"You just….pounced on her?" I asked confused. Bella never seemed like a violent person to me.

"Yep. But then she pushed me off and we started to scream at each other. I argued that she was just angry that the attention wasn't on her and that she was acting like a child and the whole Emmett thing and she said that you could expose us all and that I was being selfish by keeping you around not only to us but to you and that you deserved a human life, which, admittedly is right, and then other shit happened and I attacked her again and then Emmett got involved and then next thing I know my arms off and Jasper's tackling the others." And then she shrugged as if this was the most normal thing to happen.

I was reeling, and started to question her almost immediately. "What do you mean that she was right?" I could in no way see how Rosalie was right.

She looked up at me with glassy eyes. "Do you have any idea how selfish I am being by keeping you?" She said quietly.

_Oh fuck no._

I tried to chuckle but kind of chocked. "Selfish? How are you being selfish, If anything, I am the one being selfish."

"Because I am keeping you from a normal life, from the human life that you deserve. You want to be a vampire and that's not natural Edward! We aren't natural! And I'm selfish enough to consider taking away everything that you have, and everything that you could have just because I want you. Don't you see how wrong that is? Rosalie is right, it would be best if we just left!" Her voice had gotten steadily louder and louder until she finished abruptly. I had stiffened under her as she said that lest bit, and now my heart was beating almost painfully against my rib cage as the numbing shock wore off only to be replaced by a choking fear. She wouldn't leave me, she promised me that we would always be together!

"But I can't." She said, quiet again as she place her cool hand over my pulsing heart beat. " I can't leave you, that's a lost cause. I am altered. I can not live without you anymore. And, my kind is essentially selfish, I need you and would do anything to keep you, even take your humanity, if you consented that is." She pressed her lips to my clothed chest and I knew that she would still be with me, but still, her past words echoed through my head, reinforcing my self doubts. I knew that she loved me and I knew that she would stay, but no matter what happened I still never knew why. She gave me reasons whenever I voiced my insecurities or whenever she sensed them but still I couldn't comprehend why she would want me.

"And how, Pray tell, are you being selfish?" She chuckled.

"You deserve so much better than me." I said quietly, wishing that the rest of the family wasn't hearing this, but knowing that she needed to know what I felt. "I'm just a human, and I know enough to know that I'm gunna be a pain in the ass after you change me. You shouldn't have to do that. If you had somebody else they would already be a vampire and you wouldn't have to teach them anything. Apart from that there are a million different reasons why you deserve somebody else. But I can't let you go. I am altered too, you know that right? I don't ever want to go back to the way that I was before you, so I should let you go, I should let you leave, but I would do anything to stop you, unless that was what you really wanted."

She looked up at me all quiet and gassy eyed and whispered my name, reaching up to cup my face.

"Well, isn't this conversation depressing? How come we get two people so intent on destroying their own happiness in this family? Bella you never used to be this bad! Pfft, at the luck that we're getting here Eddie boy will turn out to be telepathic or something." Emmett rolled his eyes. He was holding the back that looked considerably emptier now but by the way that Bella's eyes had snapped to the door but rested right on the bag, I knew that there was still blood there. "I brought you a snack, ma' lady. There is deer, deer, deer or yer, pretty much just deer. I didn't go to far, wanted to get back as soon as possible, you know. But this will do, 's cold so 's gunna taste like shit anyways." Emmett shrugged and walked over with the bag.

"Do you want me to stay?" I asked Bella, hoping that she would let me but knowing that this would make things harder.

"If you are still comfortable with that, the blood is cold and there was no hunt so the instincts aren't too bad." I nodded, ecstatic that she would let me stay.

Emmett opened up the backpack on the end of the bed and continued to extract numerous bottles of the red liquid. Together, Emmett and I helped Bella to sit up and I took the lid off of the bottle for her. She smiled at me timidly, before breathing through her nose and lifting the bottle to her lips.

I started, entranced, as she started to drink from the bottle, at first with a small moan. Before a minute had passed she was done with that and was reaching eagerly for the next one. Emmett passed one to her and then one to me and I twisted the cap off of my one so that it was ready for her.

The more that she drank I could see her now open eyes starting to change their colour. The blackness was leaving her only to be replaced by the gold that I loved.

When she passed Emmett the last bottle he smiled at me. "So, what do you think? Sure, that's nothing like actually hunting, but still…"

"Pretty cool." I nodded, not sure what else to say.

Emmett just snorted then walked away with a wave. "I'm gunna go check on Rosie." He threw an apologetic glace over his giant shoulder at us. "I am sorry about what – "

"We know Emmett, it's alright." How was it that Bella could be so forgiving?

After Emmett had left I knew that she would want to talk about everything that had happened, about what I had just said but I really didn't want to have this conversation in a house full of vampires. But Bella, God love her, would not want to let me go on thinking like that. She would not wait, and whilst I knew that most of the family would try to not listen I also knew that they would not be able to completely help what they heard.

"You weren't serious about what you just said were you?" She asked me as soon as the door had shut from Emmett.

"Yes." There was no point in denying it.

"You really think that I could get better than you?"

"Yer."

"But that's so stupid! And even if I could I don't want a different mate! You're absolutely perfect for me! That's what mates are, we're soul mates, parts of two wholes, all that stuff! Honestly Edward how could you even think that – " I cut her off by kissing her, taking her surprised gasp as an opportunity to let myself taste her lips before pulling away, knowing that her instincts might still be a bit to hard for her to handle having a tasty human in her mouth.

"I know all of that, honestly I do, and I feel the same way, but I can't help that I think that. "But if all of that stuff is true for you, then it is for me too, were a mated pair Bella, a pair. It's the same for me as it is for you."

She grinned up at me. "So we give up on all of this moody self sacrificing shit?"

"We can try," I sighed. "But no promises." I rolled my eyes. She just sighed and settled herself into my chest. "We have school tomorrow don't we?" Sometimes being so involved in this world really messed with me. I had difficulty keeping up with things the days of the week and the time and the month.

"Yes, today's Sunday."

"I assume that you won't be going tomorrow." I stated it like a fact, Jasper had said that she wouldn't be fully healed for a few days.

"I probably won't be back till Tuesday or Wednesday."

"Do I have to go tomorrow?" I wouldn't be going even if she told me to but I thought that I might as well ask.

"You should but I won't make you."

"Thankyou Bella."

We talked for a few hours and the time was going by faster than Ii would have thought considering how worried that I was. To say that I was shocked when we got our next visitor would be an understatement.

"Edward," Alice said, after she appeared at the doorway. "your mother will be expecting you home soon." The expression on her face let me think that she regretted telling me this. She must have known how much I wanted to stay. The draw to be with Bella was always strong but with her in this weakened state it was even stronger. Not that I could do a whole bunch to help her fight anything that could do damage to her.

I shook my head at Alice giving into the pull. "I want to stay."

She nodded immediately, her eyes flickering to her sister. She gave me a look that made me think that she wouldn't fight me on this, that she knew where I was coming from.

"Let's take you to your house first so that you can get stuff and to tell Elizabeth."

I nodded and smiled my thanks but was still hesitant to leave Bella. "We can leave in five minutes, I will meet you at the car." Then she disappeared again.

I looked at Bella while still gripping her hand tightly.

"You know that I will be alright, right?"

I nodded but admittedly was a bit upset – did she not want me to stay?

"I mean I love to have you with me but I just need to know that you know that."

I nodded, I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"I know that but I still worry. And can you blame me? If you were human this would have killed you."

She looked like she wanted to say something else but refrained from doing so. She just nodded and smiled up at me.

"Alright, " I said as I leaned in to kiss her gently. "I will go to meet Alice and I will be back soon."

"Don't take to long." She grinned.

"And if Rosalie – "

"If she does anything I will just ignore her. Plus everyone else in on alert now, " She rolled her eyes, showing her distaste at being 'babysat'. "and you know that they won't let anything."

This at least reassured me. "And Thank God for that." I muttered as I leaned in to kiss her again before carefully getting up from the bed as not to jostle her. She wasn't fully healed yet and I didn't want to take any chances.

I made my way to the garage giving Esme a hug as I passed her and smiling at Carlisle. Alice was sitting on the hood of Bella's car and when she saw me she gracefully hopped off of the hood, landing lightly on her feet and making her way to the drivers side.

"I really do need to get my own car." She said as she got into the car. "I love to drive so it makes sure that I should have a car, right?" she looked a time expectantly and I nodded with a nod and a well placed 'right'. Her logic did actually make sense. "The others all get really picky about their cars and don't like to let me drive them, even Esme gets a bit weird sometimes. I saw this new Porsche advertised that is about to be released..." She started to ramble on about the car and I got the feeling that she was trying to avoid talking to me. Had she seen me ask something that she didn't want to answer? The only thing that I was thinking about was how much time Bella and Rosalie would need to be able to be in the same room together, let alone both fully functioning members of the family. I felt guilty again, if I had not have intruded n their private life than none of this would have happened. I wondered if Alice had seen how long, and if she liked the answer.

We were at my house in no time and when Alice pulled up she turned to me with a serious expression on her face. "I can't yet see if your mother will let you stay, I think that she will, but you need to be really convincing. Act really worried, which shouldn't be to hard because I talked to Jasper and you are actually really worried, and I don't think that that's just about Bella." She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face before looking upwards and leaning back against the seat, looking more tired than any vampire should. "And I can not blame you for that." She closed her eyes and rubbed her pale fingers in circles against her temples, before sighing again and opening her eyes.

"But, let's get on with this, I will help when I can." There was only light rain and I faced upwards and let the rain wash away some of the stress that I was feeling.

From the kitchen you can see the doorway, my mother way evidently in the kitchen and the look of shock on her face when she saw the worry on me face and a matching expression on Alice's face, add to that the absence of Bella was startling. She had more than likely jumped to a rash conclusion.

"What happened?"

"Bella got hurt." My voice sounded strangled. I knew that she was alright, but having to deliver the bad news was a lot harder than I had expected.

"Is she alright?" My mother asked as she walked towards us from the kitchen. Her voice was calm but I could tell that her mind was racing. I looked at Alice, who nodded, and made my way towards the stairs. I cold faintly hear Alice start to talk as I started to walk up the stairs and could feel my mother's eyes on me.

"She went for a walk last night – I told her to stay away from the forest but – " Alice's lithe voice carried up the stairs. I grabbed a bag from under the bed and threw boxers, a pair of pajamas and clean clothes in the bag, before adding the contents of my pockets and my bag of toiletries.

When I got back to the hallway, Alice was nowhere to be seen.

"She's in the car," I turned to see my mother back in the kitchen. " You can stay the night and I don't expect you at school tomorrow, but I will see you tomorrow night alright." She gave me a stern look that left no room for arguing.

"Yes mother."

"Alright, good, now go take care of your girl." She gave me a kiss on the cheek and then shoed me towards the car. "Good night!"

"Goodnight mum!"

Alice was grinning at me from the front seat.

"You, my dear boy, are an excellent actor." She said in a posh tone before giggling and starting up the car.

"Thankyou Alice."

"That's Alright. Now, to more serious business, do you think that I should get that car, and if so what colour?"

I mulled over this for a minute, trying to ignore the tugging. _She's close now, you will be with her any minute now. _I thought. "Get a yellow one." I said eventually, and she turned to me and grinned.

"Why yellow?"

"Because you are always so happy and yellow is such a happy colour."

She looked at me curiously for a moment. "You know what, you're right." She sighed, then grinned again. "I love the colour yellow."

Please review, reviews are better than bitch slapping Rosalie.


	16. Chapter 16 What To Say?

**Hello again! Two chapter in as many days, how lucky are you readers.**

**A review named 'bella' left me a review asking why Bella had the Mercedes Guardian when, what with it being so safe when she was so unbreakable. The answer to that is simple. Bella isn't flashy, not in the real twilight and not in this, even if she is a bit different in my story. Bella wouldn't get a Ferrari or a Vanquish (even though if I could have any car in the universe, it would be on of those, and had been that way even before I read the books) because they are so noticeable and would get heaps of attention. The Mercedes Guardian, whilst still being a beautiful car, would get as much attention. It's not as flashy and there are a lot more Mercedes around then what there are Ferrari's. Add to that that I love that car. **

******Also I need your help, what do American's do for the forth of July? I know that it's a holiday but what do you do to celebrate?******

**Thankyou to everybody else that a left a review for the last chapter.**

By the time that we got to the house both my head and my heart were screaming, the tugging was getting painful and I stumbled up the stairs trying to get to her quicker. When I finally did get to her I practically threw myself on the bed next to her, wrapping my arms round her waist and burying my face in her hair. I expected her to question me or something like that but as usual she surprised me, this time by wrapping her good arm round me to and taking in a shuddering breath.

"What took you so long?"

"Alice wasn't driving fast enough – which is something that I never thought that I would say." I chuckled.

"You told her to get a yellow Porsche?" She grinned at me.

"She would have gotten the car anyways, besides, how many people do you know that have a yellow Porsche?"

"Nobody."

"Exactly, and how did you know?"

"She is excited and telling Jasper right now."

I laughed at that.

"And you know, I still didn't ask her about the weather." I said thoughtfully. "Hey, Alice?"

"Yes?" She was still grinning with an exasperated looking Jasper standing behind her. They made their way into the room and sat carefully on the edge of the bed. "Do you need my help with something?"

"Yes we do, after all, you are the most reliable weather girl that I know of," I teased. " And the human weather people can't tell me what is going to happen next month."

"And what is happening next month may I ask?"

Bella looked to me to explain. "My aunt Caroline, you know, the one that lives in Phoenix," Jasper and Alice nodded, the laughter from my teasing leaving their faces to be replaced by a forlorn expression. "Lighten up guys, nothing happened. Anyway, she got back recently and her and my grandmother organized this family reunion thing because we haven't really gotten together since my dad died and so they want us to go to Chicago from the first to the forth of July. It would be great if Bella could come too, but what about the weather? If it's sunny then she won't be able to." I bit my lip, a nervous habit that I had picked up from Bella.

We all looked to Alice.

"Hmmm," She said. "Just give me a moment…." Her eyes glazed over and she became still as the stone that she was made from. Jasper put a soothing hand on her arm and looked at her worriedly. I noticed that he always did that, he always looked so worried whenever she had a vision and I wondered why. We were silent for about ten minutes and I was starting to get worried, before Alice blinked her wide eyes a few times before grinning.

"Good news?" I asked her, already somehow knowing the answer.

"Yes, there is a cold front sweeping in from the coast so Chicago will be covered in clouds. You can expect rain for a few days but I don't see you coming back on the forth but on the fifth instead. The third will be sunny though, but only for half the day. You can avoid that if you try."

"So you can go?" I asked Bella excitedly.

"Looks like it." There was excitement in her eyes, bit something else that I could not explained underneath.

"Why are you nervous?" Jasper asked her.

"You're nervous?" I asked.

"Why would you be nervous?" Alice giggled.

"Guys –. " Bella huffed.

"Just tell us already." Jasper rolled his black eyes.

"Well," Bella ducked her head and I knew that she would be blushing if she could. "what if they don't like me, what if they are _scared_ of me."

I couldn't help myself, I laughed.

"Why are you laughing at me!" She cried.

"Because, that's such a stupid thing to be scared of. Who cares if the don't like you, shit, they don't like me! If you scare them, which I doubt that you will because you really aren't scary, then I don't see the problem with that. If they are scared of you then they are less likely to annoy you, and me by association."

She pursed her lips but didn't say anything else.

"You really don't think that any of us are scary?" Alice asked.

"Not really, I mean, Emmett was at first glance and Rosalie just sends off a vibe like she wants to kill you, but I never really feel like she can, or will I guess, granted that she would probably like to," Bella growled at my words. "but after I got to know you all I wasn't scared or intimidated by any of you, only a little bit of, I dunno, unease, with Rosalie, but that's just because she glares at me all the time and I don't really know her."

"That's just because Edward has no sense of self preservation around us." Bella sniffed.

"Like you were any better, Carlisle told us the story Bella." Jasper grinned. I think that he was just happy that there was a human that wasn't scared of him.

"Shut up."

"Edward, Esme made dinner for you, come and eat and then you can come back up here." Alice hopped off the bed and grabbed my hand. "Let's let these two talk." I frowned but let her take me to the kitchen. I'm a teenage boy, I was hungry.

When we got to the kitchen Esme was putting a plate of some sort pasta on the breakfast bench. "Here you are dear." She said motherly. "Now eat up."

"Thankyou Esme." I said before digging in. Alice left the room to go do something but Esme leaned against the counter.

I paused, my fork almost at my mouth with the pasta dangling in the air, before I slowly put the fork back in the bowl. Esme looked up at me when she head the cutlery clatter against the china.

"Is it alright?" She asked.

"Yes it's perfect." She was an extraordinarily good cook for somebody that didn't eat. "But are you alright?" She stared at me for a few moments before shaking her head. "You can talk to me you know, I won't tell anybody anything that you don't want me to." I could hear raised voices and laughter from upstairs and music from the living room. I assumed that Carlisle was at work. No one would hear us.

She came and leaned on her elbows on the opposite side of the counter of me. "It's just –" She sighed. "everything is going to be so different now, and I don't know how we are going to get back from this. You know how stubborn the two of them can get," I assumed that she was talking about Rosalie and Bella. "and after last time, I just, I don't know what to do. It's been more than a month since the last time that they had a big fight and they still wouldn't even talk to each other, and now after this has happened, I mean, Rose practically threatened to kill you which is one of Bella's biggest fears! You've got no idea how petrified she is that something will happen to you that she can't stop, or worse still, that she causes and that you will die as a result. No doubt that she won't leave the area to hunt again. I feel like the whole family is separating and I have no idea what's going to happen, not even Alice can see. I mean, what if Rosalie and Emmett leave. She threatened to and if she did I think that she would come back but what if she didn't, and Emmett loves her to much to let her go alone! What if she wants us to choose! How can I choose between my children? I've already lost one and I can't loose another."

The guilt was back again. I had caused all of this, if I had never interfered than none of this would have happened.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly.

"There's nothing to apologize for dear." She said off handedly and patted my hand. "Now eat your food."

I nodded obediently and dug in.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

I woke up the next morning to see Bella, chain free and flexing her fingers. Needless to say, they weren't doing exactly what she wanted.

"Any better?" I asked her sleepily whilst trying to rub the sleep from my eyes.

"A little, and good morning."

I grunted and yawned before rolling over to place a kiss on her cheek.

"You're not going to school." I shook my head because speech, apparently, was beyond me. "That's good, you would be late if you were."

I hummed to let her know that I was listening. My head went to her neck and I breathed in deeply. "And the others?"

"Jasper went hunting, Alice went to keep him company because she didn't want to go to school. Rosalie and Emmett are in their bedroom, as are Esme and Carlisle in theirs. Rosalie is almost completely healed and Jasper was ready to strangle somebody from all of the emotions flowing round the house. It's a good thing that a lack of oxygen doesn't kill us." She mused with a smile on her face. Something told me that she had thought that before.

"What's the story?"

"When the school calls Esme will tell them the same story that Alice told your mother. I went hiking and fell from a small cliff that's near the back of the house. Alice is to upset to go to school and your mother will tell them that you are with me."

"Nice cover."

"Yer, I'll just have to wear a bandage round my arm for the rest of the school year."

"Easy." I smiled. "Can you move yet?"

She lifted her arm about five centimeters above the bed. "I should be alright by this time tomorrow." I nodded and we were silent until yesterday's conversation with Esme came to the surface of my mind. True to my word, I hadn't said anything to the others and they had not given any indication that they knew what we had spoken about but her words had made me curious. I had wondered what Bella would do and how long the two girls would take to make emends, but that thought had left my mind until Esme had brought it up again. I had been trying to think of a way to ask Bella last night but had decided not to say anything for the mean time, hoping that the others would go out today so that we could talk together privately.

"What are you going to do?" She looked at me. "About Rosalie what are you, _we_, going to do? What are we going to do?"

She looked thoughtful. "I don't know. I don't want to be near her, and I don't want you to be near her." I nodded. "But I cant leave the others. Esme would fall apart. But Rosalie and Emmett were planning to go on another honeymoon, I assume that they will still go on that and if so then I will not have to put up with her for long. Esme might be a bit upset at first thinking that Rosalie just wants to get away from the family, but once she realizes that they will be coming back and that they were going to go anyway, she will be alright."

Something else that Esme said last night came to the surface of my mind. She said that Bella was scared that I might die somehow, and that Bella wouldn't be able to help. Did she really feel that way? I know that I got paranoid about her getting hurt and I had the added advantage of knowing that she was almost intractable. She didn't have that. But how was I meant to bring that up without giving away Esme?I asked an easier question. "Do you know when they will leave?"

"Emmett wanted to wait until after your birthday."

"Why?"

"Because none of us have had a real birthday in ages. Jasper, Alice and Carlisle don't even know when their birthdays are."

"You're not going to do anything are you?" I asked her.

"That's for us to know and for you to find out."

I groaned, burying my face in he neck again. "Bel-la." I said, drawing her name out.

"What's wrong?" She laughed, running her tiny little fingers through my hair.

"Noooo." I whined, my voice muffled by her rock hard skin.

"Why?" I just grunted in response. "That's not an answer." I made a whining noise that was longer and higher in pitch this time but she just laughed at me again. What did she expect me to say, I just woke up. "Go on, Esme made breakfast for you, go eat and then come back to me." I grunted yet again, then pressed a kiss to her neck then got up, pulled on a shirt to go with my flannel pajama pants and headed to the kitchen. She was looking much happier than she had been last night and whilst I was happy about that, I didn't want to know why she was wearing that smile considering that she had spent the last few hours with Carlisle. I figured that I would be safer not asking.

"There you go." She had made me toast and a hot chocolate. I smiled at that, knowing that Bella must have told her that I loved hot chocolate and hated coffee.

"Thankyou Esme." She left to go and get the phone and I could hear her telling who I presumed to be the school about Bella's accident.

I stood up when I was finished, taking advantage of the fact that Esme was still on the phone to wash up my own dishes when Rosalie walked silently into the kitchen. I only noticed that she was there when the refrigerator door opened and I jumped, shocked at the noise. She was glaring at me, so I rose an eyebrow and went back to washing the dishes. Her arm and been held up in a sling – which was an odd thing to see – but then the situation got even weirder when she got a drink bottle full of red blood from the fridge and then put it n the microwave. When she was done with that one, she got another and heated that one two. She was staring at the microwave when I started to dry the dishes and Esme came rushing into the room, a look of pure panic on her face.

I smiled at her reassuringly, though I to thought that Rosalie would have said something insulting to me.

"You're making a mistake." I heard Rosalie's hard voice.

"Excuse me?" I asked her, noting Esme's petrified look.

"If you let her change you, you're making a mistake."

"Rosalie - "

"No, Esme, everybody else gets to tell him their story so why not me." She fixed her stony eyes on her mother, before looking back at the microwave.

"I wanted you to tell me," I told her, looking at the dish in my hands. "but didn't think that you would."

"Well then you should of asked."

Esme's face went from concern to shock.

I turned then, and hearing what I was doing she did the same. I rose an eyebrow at her, as if I was daring her to keep going.

"You don't need to know what happened to me, or the events that led up to my change, but I will tell you this. I always wanted children, and a marriage to a fine man that could provide me a lavish lifestyle. And I had everything that I wanted on my fingertips. I was about to get married and there was no doubt in my mind that within two years I would be expecting my first child. But then everything changed, that life was taken away from me. Carlisle found me and turned me. Carlisle thought that I deserved a second chance. And I did, but this wasn't the second chance that I wanted. This life is a curse. This life took away my chance of having children. The thirst is crazy, and always there, particularly when you're a newborn and when you live this lifestyle.

You have no children and you have no real part in society. You don't get to leave a mark on the world or grow old with your partner. You have to move all the time and after you change you leave everyone behind, everything that you could have been behind. And there is no gong back, you don't get another chance to be human. It's depressing to see everyone move forward and grow whilst you stay the same." She stared at me and I didn't know if she was finished or if she was letting me think over what she had said, but I didn't give her a chance to continue.

"You say that you hate this life because now you can't have kids, but if you were dead you couldn't have them anyway." Her stony eyes widened. "Carlisle did give you a second chance. You got a family, and you got Emmett. If whatever happened to you hadn't of happened, then you would of gotten married to some guy that you didn't really belong to, hand a bunch of his kids and then gotten old and died. Your life wouldn't have been perfect because you never would have really found your place in the world with the person that you're meant to be with. You're lucky that Carlisle changed you, or you never would have gotten a chance at really living. You should be grateful for what you have actually got as opposed to being bitter."

"I think that that's enough, Rosalie, you need to rest, and Edward, Bella wants you." Esme said carefully, quietly. I nodded and walked away. I was surprised at how calm that I was.

Bella, on the other hand, was a wreck.

"Are you alright! I can't believe that she did that, Carlisle told her to leave you alone but she did that anyway. And you stood up to her! I'm proud but that really wasn't a smart thing to do considering that she's so angry!"

"Shh, I'm alright, everything went fine." I said soothingly, stroking her hair. "And hey, that's one more person's story that I've heard, only Emmett and Esme to go." I grinned at her.

The rest of the day was spent much in the same fashion as yesterday. We got a few visits from the rest of the family, Alice and Jasper coming in the find some sort of entertainment and Esme and Carlisle coming in to check on Bella and, surprisingly, me.

"We just want to make sure that you were alright after talking to Rosalie." Carlisle shrugged after I questioned why they wondered how I was. "You can't be to happy with being near her right now."

But truly I was fine. Rosalie hadn't told me anything about being a vampire that I didn't already know, and nothing had really happened.

It was with great regret that I went to the garage with Carlisle to be taken to my mothers house. I knew that Bella wouldn't be coming to visit me tonight, and that I would be going to school tomorrow alone, and, as dramatic as I was starting to sound, I had no idea who I was going to survive.

**Another authors note, sorry. **

**About Rosalie's 'story', some of you are probably going wtf, right. Well, me too. At the beginning of the story I had expected her to go into detail, maybe even more than what she did in Eclipse. But, then again, I had not planned any of these Bella – Rosalie fights, actually I had planned for Rosalie to be nice to Edward after she accepted the fact that her sister truly loved him, but that didn't happen. Not even the original fight was expected. So, because Rosalie doesn't trust Edward at all, and is still really pissed at him not just because of the whole 'I wanna be a vampire thing' like she mostly was with Bella, she just really doesn't like the poor guy. With this in mind, why the hell would she tell Edward what had happened to her, she doesn't think that Edward deserves to know that much about her, to have the power over her that knowing that sort of thing about her would give him. **

**Please review, their better than Rosalie getting verbally bitch slapped. **


	17. Chapter 17 Missing Boring

**Hello again! Chapter seventeen took a lot less time than I thought, it only took me a few hours, making this the third up date in three days. Don't get to used to it though, sadly school starts again soon. **

**To 'cba to think of a name', I'd just like to say a few things, even though your more than likely not reading this. First, it says quite clearly in the summary of the story that it is a twilight reverse, if you don't like twilight reverse stories why would you bother to read this one? That's just common sense to me but whatever…. Second, I don't have any problem with criticism, it's more than welcome, and it's fine to have your own opinions, but don't totally insult a book that everybody else reading this likes, it's obvious that they're going to retaliate. I agree that Stephenie Meyer does have some issues with her grammar and writing, but if you ask me reading books with that problem doesn't 'ruin your english grades'. Reading Twilight has only effected my writing in the sense that I do it more now. I still get A's and B's in English and all of my other subjects, so I don't care if you're a teacher, don't make inaccurate assumptions. And third, how, pray tell, is Twilight pedophilic? There is no sex, no dirty thoughts and only mild kissing and that alone doesn't happen very often. But thanks for the fabulous writer stuff, maybe you can read past the first chapter next time before you criticize me and my story and you can see if I'm really any good.**

**Right, sorry about that guys, maybe I'm just in a bitchy mood today. Anyway, thankyou to everyone that reviewed, you fan-fucking-tastic guys got my to over one hundred 3. **

**Give a listen to the two songs mentioned in this chapter, 'I Want To Save You' by Something Corporate and 'Waking Up' by One Republic.**

**Enjoy chapter seventeen and keep reviewing. **

**-Sarah.**

_Chapter sixteen - It was with great regret that I went to the garage with Carlisle to be taken to my mothers house. I knew that Bella wouldn't be coming to visit me tonight, and that I would be going to school tomorrow alone, and, as dramatic as I was starting to sound, I had no idea who I was going to survive._

My mother greeted me at the door like I had bee at the Cullen's for a year, fussing over me and asking if I was hungry. She invited Carlisle in for a cup of coffee but, when I looked behind me to see if he was alright because it had taken him a little but longer to reply than what I had expected, I saw that he had gone still (more than usual), his posture showing that he was uncomfortable.

Because of this, I had expected him to say no.

Apparently, Bella got her knack at surprising me from Carlisle.

"Actually I would like that, if it's not too much trouble." He smiled at her gently.

My mother looked ecstatic, which was odd to say the least.

"Excellent, well, come in, come in." She said, stepping out of the way to let us in. It was when I turned to close the door that I saw the unfamiliar car parked on the street in front of the house.

I didn't get too much time to question this before I was ushered into the living room with Carlisle and saw the owner of the car. Sue Clearwater, along with her son Seth and Sam Uley sat on the two person couch and the armchair. I was shocked, and the sarcastic asshole part of my brain was aimlessly wondering how Sam, being half giant, managed to fit in the one man armchair.

I vaguely heard my mother saying something about making more coffee and when I snapped back into focus, I realized that Carlisle was no longer standing by my side but had moved over to the couch on the opposite side of the room from Sam, his nose slightly scrunched up before he shook his head, almost invisibly, and his face went back to normal, completely smooth. There was still some discomfort in Carlisle's topaz eyes though.

I wondered why Carlisle had chosen to stay. From his behaviour at the door he must have known who was here, and yet he stayed, even though they were enemies. I knew that Carlisle didn't trust the wolves anymore than Bella or I did, even if he put more effort into hiding his distaste. I thought about how worried that Bella had been when I first met the wolves, and realized then that that was why Carlisle had stayed.

He was _worried_ about me.

I blushed, I couldn't help myself. It felt nice to know that somebody was concerned about me enough to sit here with their mortal enemies, or worried about me at all. I mean, I knew that Bella and my mother worried about me, but that was different than this.

I respected Carlisle a great deal and thought of him as family, as a sort of father figure, even though I didn't have the balls to admit that to anybody but myself. It was nice to know that he gave a shit.

The three visitors were all staring at Carlisle, their expression ranging from shock to anger. I noticed that Sam was shaking a bit, small tremors running though his torso and arms. With a stab of panic, I realized that he was angry, and that this behaviour probably meant that he was close to changing.

_Fuck this has been an eventful week. _

I was starting to miss boring.

Seth's eyes flickered over to me, and I gave him a small smile before making my way over to Carlisle. I liked Seth. He was nice, and trusting. If our families weren't mortal enemies, then maybe we could have bee better friends, but alas, our families hated each other, and I would choose the vamps over the wolves any day. I hoped that by sitting next to Carlisle I was letting the others know that I had chosen my side, and that I was staying there.

It worked.

As soon as I sat next to Carlisle, trying to show him some support and thanks by smiling at him, Sam growled. Quietly, but enough so that everyone in the room could hear. Sue closed her eyes, as if trying to collect herself or asking for patience, Seth jumped about a foot in the air and stared, wide eyed, at Sam. Obviously no one had thought to tell the poor kid that the legends were true, and that Sam had made the change. I thought that that was bad parenting on Sue's part, letting her son unknowingly be around a wolf without him even knowing the danger that he was in. The only reaction that Carlisle had was to tighten his eyes and angel his boy closer to mine, as if to protect me.

"You shouldn't be here." Sam growled. Seth looked petrified.

"This is Forks, not La Push. This is on my side of the boundary line, I have every right to be here, and I have every right to ask you to leave." Carlisle let them absorb that and I watched Seth and Sue's eyes widen, and Sam's tighten, shaking increased. "But I won't do that, you are friends with Elizabeth and are here as her guest, and this is not my house. But I will stay here until you leave Sam, Edward is my family and I want to know if he's alright."

"Because he would be safer with a blood sucker then with a wolf, is that what you're trying to say?" Sue sounded out raged. Before either of us got the chance to reply both mine and Carlisle's phones started to ring. I had no idea what Carlisle's ring tone song was, but Something Corporate's 'I Want To Save You' started to come through my phone. Bella.

'_She wants to hear she's beautiful, she beautiful._

_I want to save you, I want to save you, yeh._

_I need you, save me too,_

_I want to save you'_

I fished my phone from the pocket of my jeans and answered at the same time as Carlisle.

"Hello?" We both said.

"Edward! Oh Thank God! Where are you! Alice went looking for the two of you to see when Carlisle would be back and she couldn't see anything, are you alright?"

"Bella we're fine. Carlisle is at my house having coffee with my mother and Mrs. Clearwater. Her son and Sam are up here too."

She was silent before – "Leave, leave there now, get Carlisle to bring you over. I don't want you around them Edward. Are they angry?"

"Yes."

"Well what do you expect? I am sitting in the same room as a leach and a human boy that's been sucked into their world." Sam growled. I hadn't realized that they had such good hearing.

"It'll be alright Esme, I won't be long." I could hear Carlisle saying. If shit kept happening I think that Esme is going to have a panic attack or something like that.

"It's alright Bella, Carlisle is here, and with my mother here as well nothing bad will happen, no one wants any more secrets to be revealed today." I said to her as my mother walked back into the room. Everyone managed to compose themselves before she saw anything thing. Carlisle was now smiling, as was Sue, Seth's face was blank but I didn't know if that was by choice, and Sam had stopped trembling. "But I will talk to you later alright," I said, pretending for my mother's sake that everything was alright and that she wasn't about to have a giant wolf in her living room. "I hope that you're feeling better."

"Please be safe."

"I love you."

"I love you too." Then we hung up, as did Carlisle.

Mum gave a mug to Carlisle before sitting on the other arm chair. "Carlisle have you met Sue, Sam and Seth?"

"Just Sam, though it's a pleasure to meet you two." Carlisle smiled at them politely before taking a sip off coffee. Poor guy.

We spent the next twenty minutes making awkward conversation, my mother smiling along seemingly oblivious to the tension in the air. When all the coffee had been drank and Sue announced that they best be going I offered to clean up the mugs and Seth jumped at the chance to help me, or maybe the poor kid just wanted to get away from the angry werewolf man.

"You knew," Seth said once we were alone. "You knew all along and you never told me!"

"I only found out about the wolf's from," I nodded in his direction. "and I already had a suspicion about the Cullens."

"I can't believe this. Vampires are real!" Seth was wayyyy to pale.

"Seth it's alright."

"Are you serious! I just found out that the legends that I've spent fifteen years laughing at are real, and I just spent twenty minutes in the presence of a vampire, and who knows how long Sam's been a wolf for! When he was trembling before, that was because he was gunna change right?" I nodded. "Shit, wait, did Emily really get attacked by a bear?" I shrugged. "But Sam wouldn't hurt her, he loves her wait! That's why he left Leah isn't it! He imprinted on Emily didn't he!"

"I've got no idea what you're talking about." I said.

"Yes, Seth, that's what happened, now come, we've got to go." Sam said, appearing at the door way.

"Alright then, cya Edward."

"Bye." I said, waving slowly.

"Will I be one?" I could hear Seth asking Sam as they left the room.

"I should be going to," Carlisle said as I went back to the living room. Sue and her group had already left. "Esme will want me at the house."

"Oh, alright then." Mother said. "But how is Bella?"

"She's alright, just a few scratches on her chest and upper legs." Good going Carlisle. Bella wouldn't be expected to show the scratches if they were there. "She will have to wear a bandage on her should though, a sling to more than likely. The scar there will more than likely be permanent, she isn't too happy about that."

Was he serious about that?

"Well tell her that I wish her well." My mother still looked worried, so Carlisle smiled reassuringly and told her that he would. I walked Carlisle to the car and thanked him for staying.

"It's no problem son." He said, clasping my shoulder with his large hand before stepping into the car and driving off, leaving me shocked in the driveway with the rain falling lightly, slowly but surely drenching my hair.

"Edward?" My mother said from the porch. "Why are you just standing there? Come inside."

I turned without saying anything and made my way into the house. Has he meant it _that_ way? Had he meant that he saw me as a son or was it just a figure of speech or whatever?

"Are you alright?" She asked me, probably wondering why I looked so confused. I hummed in response, hoping that she took that for a yes. "Well I'm going to cook something to eat, you go take a shower." I nodded again and did as she said, not bothering to grab clothes because Bella wasn't here so I could get dressed in my room. And just like that I was miserable again.

I didn't pay much attention at dinner. I knew that I should have been, my time with my mother was limited, even if I still had another year or so, but I wanted to savor it. Who knew what would happen to her after I left.

"Sue and the others were acting rather strange today don't you think?" Mother mused. She immediately had my attention. "I mean, they were perfectly fine until you and Carlisle got here, and then everything got all tense." So she had noticed, I should have known. "Do you know why they were like that?" She favored me with a sly glance.

"You know that they don't get along." I muttered.

"Yes but why?" She set her fork on her plate and looked at me. "You spend all your time with them – "

"And you spend all of yours with Sue."

"Surely you've got to know."

"Mummm." I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face. "I've heard some stuff… I think that the Cullen's had some family that lived in the area, like, in the forties or something like that. They met the Quileute's and they didn't get along or something. The…. animosity hasn't gone away. I don't really know." That was kind of close to the truth.

"Huh."

"What?"

"I was just thinking, Sue keeps on telling me that I should keep you away from them."

"What?" I asked her in a monotone. How dare she! How dare that woman tell my mother that I shouldn't be seeing my own family or the woman that I loved!

"She keeps on saying that the Cullens aren't very good people to be around and that I should stop you from seeing them. She says that they are dangerous, that they could hurt you."

"She hasn't even spoken to them before, just Carlisle today. All that she knows are the roumers."

"I'm not saying that she was right or that I'm going to stop you, I just wondered why she thought all of that and…."

I waited for her to continue. "And….." I prompted.

"Just….can you promise me that you're not going to disappear."

I stilled, shocked. How much did she know?

"Edward, son I love you, I want to be apart of your life. And you're almost 18. Promise me that you won't elope or runaway with Bella. I want to know where you are and I want to see my son get married."

"Bella's not 18 till September." I said quietly, and I sounded chocked. That wasn't the right thing to say. He eyes widened, but acceptance washed over her features. Did she think that I had already asked Bella to marry me and not told her? Did she think that I was even capable of that. Bella and I, as far as the community were concerned, were just dating and most of the time I could barely refrain from screaming that she was mine, I wanted everyone to know. Did she really think that I could keep my mouth shut when I finally got her? Besides, I love my mother and if I were to get married, scratch that, when I got married I wanted her to be there even if I did have to wait a bit longer to change.

"So you have asked her." She said, nodding and looking at her plate. Did I see hurt in her eyes?

"No, I haven't, not yet, but I will soon, before we graduate probably. After her birthday I was thinking. And when we do get married, because I have got no doubt that we will eventually will, I want you to be there. I love you mum and I want you to be there for stuff like that."

"Thankyou Edward." She said with tears in her eyes then leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. I was just glad that she didn't bring up running away. I didn't know how to respond to that.

"Are you nervous?"

"About what?"

"About asking her."

"Yes." I gulped. She didn't have any idea how nervous that I was.

"Good."

I looked at her and laughed, happy that she was still able to tease me. "What! Aren't you meant to be supportive?"

"A man should be nervous when he proposes."

"Yeh well I get all shaky whenever I think about it."

She grinned at me. "Do you know what you're gunna say?"

"Nope, something about love?" I said slyly.

She was staring at me strangely, her head cocked to the side, her bronze curls falling over her shoulder, somehow looking graceful. How can hair look graceful?

"You're so like you are father some times that it scares me." She said quietly.

"I am?" I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Not always, but sometime, yes. Just the way that you act or the things that you say, you remind me of him. It helps." She said, shrugging.

I wasn't altogether happy that I was like Edward Sr.. I mean sure, he was a decent guy I guess, he cared about us but he wasn't around that much. I didn't want to be that way with my family, even though kids would never be in the picture.

We didn't talk much for the rest of the night but I knew that she was thinking about dad. My suspicions were conformed when she went to bed at eight. I asked her if she was alright before she made her way up the stairs and she nodded sadly at me, patting my head as she went by. I played the piano to pass the time, enjoying the way that Bella's lullaby sounded and wondering when I would play for her. I thought that she would like it but whenever she bought it up I would always say 'later' or 'next time that we're at my place' or something like that, I was to nervous. I sighed, giving up I started to play waking up by One Republic, I loved that song.

Needless to say that I didn't get much sleep that night. I went to bed at 11 and left the window open, wishful thinking, whatever. The last time that I checked the time was at four am and when I finally did get to sleep my mind was full of strange dreams but I was used to that by now. This happened whenever Bella was gone and she went hunting far to often as far as I was concerned, though I knew that it was necessary. I couldn't wait until I was able to go hunting with her.

**Alright, so there was chapter seventeen. And most of you already knew that Edward wanted to propose because I had mentioned it before but now it's definite. But I have a question, should Elizabeth give Edward her wedding ring to give to Bella like they did in the original series or just some random ring that she had, should the ring be one of Edward's grandmothers or should Edward buy a completely new ring?**


	18. Chapter 18 It's Freedom Time Sunshine

**Hello dear readers, not much to say here, just that this is a bit of a filler chapter, but the next should be more exciting. Thankyou for the reviews and keep them coming, what can I say, I'm a review whore, though I think that most fan fiction writers are. **

**Thankyou especially to the lovely ****ttyyyytt**** for all of her awesome support.**

**And give a listen to Linkin Parks new album, it's mentioned in this chapter and I get that the timing is wrong for the release and everything because it only came out a few weeks ago but whatever, it's an awesome album.**

It was safe to say that I knew, without a doubt, that today would be shitty within the first ten minutes of getting up.

My phone ran out of battery so my alarm didn't go off so I got up twenty minutes late. I didn't flick the switch when I plugged my phone in to charge so I wasted another twenty minutes of possible charging time. I forgot to take underwear to the bathroom and only realized after I had had a shower. I kicked my foot on the step of the shower, slipped on a puddle of water and fell into the glass on the shower and I had a pimple.

This day was just fan-fucking-tastic.

And I knew that Bella wouldn't be in my room waiting for me, but I was still embarrassed going into my room with only a towel round my waist incase she was there.

She wasn't.

I spent more time internally moaning that she wasn't with me and didn't realize how much time I had wasted so I was later then before and didn't get time to eat, which sucked because I was really fucking hungry.

I didn't bother to argue with my mother about going to school; she was adamant that I get a good quality education and wouldn't budge on this and I knew that.

I sped to school, not wanting to be late. There was almost no one left in the parking lot because the bell was due to go at any second, and this was the first good sign for today. I didn't want to talk; I just wanted to get through today as quickly as possible.

Alas, that was not meant to be.

When I walked into home room people eyed me strangely and would lean over to their neighbors to talk quietly.

I shrugged, to tired to question them, I didn't really care anyway.

That was until Jessica Stanley made herself present in my day.

We were in English together and the teacher wasn't in the room yet. Seemingly on autopilot I went to the back on the classroom and put my stuff on my desk, taking my usual set and folding my arms on the table before resting my head on them. I didn't move until I heard the chair next to me moving. I looked up only to see the viper herself.

"What can I do for you Jessica?" I asked her. Her hazel eyes glowed and I knew that that was the wrong thing to say on my half.

"I'm sure that there's a lot that you could do for me." She giggled and I frowned. "But right now I really want to know what's up with the Cullen's." She looked at me readily, as if I was about to tell her all of my deepest darkest secrets, and the Cullen's too.

"What do you mean Jessica?"

"You, Bella and Alice were all away yesterday, and Alice and Bella aren't here today," That answered that question. I was unsure if Alice would be coming today. "and Lauren's mum works as a nurse at the hospital and she heard Dr. Cullen talking about how his daughter was injured and that he needed a shift off a few days ago. And she hasn't been to the hospital, but apparently she's sick enough not to go to school. So what happened to her?"

I had lived here for a few months now but I was still always surprised at how quickly gossip spread, and how the smallest thing could excite them all, even though Bella getting hurt was no small thing. At least this explained form class.

"What happened to Bella has nothing to do with you Jessica, or anybody else that isn't related to myself or Bella."

Jessica's face only fell for a fraction of a second before she perked right up. "Does she have any serious or permanent disfigurement?"

"What? No! What would that matter anyways?" I was beyond pissed that she was happy at the prospect of Bella being seriously hurt.

"Oh, I was just wondering." She looked thoughtful, turning her eyes so that she wasn't looking at me, but at the window. "When will she be back?"

"Dunno, tomorrow, Thursday? Whenever she feels well enough."

"Oh," She looked like she wanted to say something else, but at that time the teacher came into the room and called the class to attention. She looked disappointed but went back to her desk nonetheless. I looked over at her ten minutes into the lesson and saw that she was whispering with Kathy Hargreaves, when of her fellow pit vipers, and they were looking back at me every now and then. I groaned, knowing what they were more than likely talking about and let my head fall onto the table making a loud banging noise and not helping with the splitting headache that I had developed.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

It was lunch and I was sitting at the regular 'Cullen' table, by myself with my IPod blasting to Linkin Parks 'When They Come For Me' in my ears and my phone out, grateful that I had charged it this morning after I got from the shower. My macaroni and cheese was sitting innocently on the table, still half eaten with my half finished can of lemonade on the table. I hadn't touched them since my phone first beeped ten minutes ago.

_Full hand movement back, score one for Bella Cullen. _She had text me. I had dropped my fork on the table in my hurry to respond to her.

_Can you life your arm? _I had waited anxiously for her reply.

_Almost all the way._

_Can I come over tonight? _I had assumed that she would want me there and I was almost positive that she would but I thought that I might as well ask as I was talking to her now, just to make sure.

_I would drag you over if you hadn't planned on coming over._

I smiled widely, probably earning a few more curious whispers. I didn't care; they were all staring at me already.

_I'll be there as soon as I can get there._

_Don't speed._ I thought that it was kind of funny that she didn't want me to speed even though her and the rest of the family always sped.

Granted, if I crashed I would probably die or have some sort of grievous injury, unlike her and her family, but that was beside the point.

I was pissed off when the Bell rang, though I know that I should be happy because that meant that I was that much closer to seeing Bella again.

Biology was dull, we watched some stupid video and I all but feel asleep in class. I wondered absently why Alice didn't come today but couldn't really blame her. If I had gone to high school as many time as she had, which I very much planned to have in the next fifty or so years, then I would take time off if the opportunity presented itself.

We could do whatever we wanted in gym so I changed into my gym clothes and made my way to the track field outside, taking advantage of the fact that it hadn't rained much today. Apparently I wasn't the only one with this idea. Slowly, the grounds filled up until almost the whole class was there though not a lot of us were doing any actual sport. They were all talking about plans for the summer, going on vacations or parties or plans to sleep for the next three weeks before they decided what they were going to spend the next few months doing.

It was then that it hit me. I mean, I knew that summer was coming up and that as a result I would have a huge block of uninterrupted time with my Bella, but I don't think that I really comprehended the fact that I would have absolutely nothing to do except for Bella.

_Wait, that didn't sound right._

With this thought ( the thought of free time with Bella not the thought of doing Bella ) ( alright so maybe kinda the thought of doing Bella ) I felt a wide grin spread across my face as I went towards the track field.

I wanted to be able to take her on a date, difficult as that was considering that she didn't eat food. Think about it, almost every date involves food of some kind, but I would work on it. We were, as far as society was concerned, a young couple in love, and I didn't see why we shouldn't act like it. We almost never went on dates.

Maybe I could do something at the meadow with her or we could go to Seattle or Port Angels for the day.

_Hmm, well, something to think about._

I swear that I was counting down the fucking second till the bell rang. I went and got changed earlier than I usually would have, before anybody else did too. I thought that Coach would have said something but he didn't, probably because on the few visits outside he had seen that I was one of the only ones that was doing actual work.

I was standing by the double doors of the gym waiting till the bell was going to go, and when it did I slipped, unnoticed, through the doors. I was the first one to the parking lot and the first car from the lot. Despite what Bella had said about speeding, I am not gunna lie, I did, but can you blame me? I missed her.

The pull in my chest and my head had been nagging at me all day. I was getting used to the feeling, as much as one can get used to a feeling like that, but I still preferred to be with her.

I was cursing how long their driveway was when I saw a flash from beside the car. Looking over, I saw Jasper and Alice running alongside the car through the forest, seemingly racing. The caught me staring, them all giggles and smiles, so I grinned and stepped my foot harder on the pedal. Obviously, they still beat me, but when they mentioned that I informed them quite politely that their vampirism was an unfair advantage and that they could get ready to get their asses thoroughly kicked after I got changed.

"Whatever you say kid, whatever you say." Jasper said patronizingly as he patted my head as he walked past. I knew that he was the fastest in the family and I hoped that I would be faster, even if it was only when I was a newborn, just so that I could see the look of shock in the smug bastards face.

Alice winked at me when she walked passed. I hoped that that was a good thing.

I waved at Esme and Emmett, who were talking quietly on the couches and I walked into the foyer and up the stairs. I assumed that Bella was still in her room.

And she was, standing next to the bad. She flashed to my side as soon as I was through the door and had her arms wrapped round my neck. She was chain free, bandage free, sling free and beautiful. I wrapped my arms around her slight from, happy that she could finally reciprocate again.

"I love you." I said, knowing that I could say the words a thousand times a day and that that still wouldn't be enough.

"I love you too." I nuzzled my face into her hair. Everything was alright again, she was with me, and I was whole.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

Bella and Alice were both back to school the next day. Again Jessica Stanley decided to talk to me in English, but this time to question me on Bella's sudden reappearance. Apparently, this didn't match up with some of the gossip that she had heard, which didn't make much sense to me because she was probably the one that spread most of the gossip and I had told her that Bella would be back today yesterday.

Whatever, petty school gossip wasn't my main concern.

No, my main concerns were things like possible birthday parties, vampire transformations and vampire family feuds.

Rosalie and Bella weren't talking, which wasn't a big surprise. Nor were Rosalie and I, shock shock. Bella and Emmett were fine though I was still a little edge. I was having a much easier time forgiving Emmett than I was Rosalie, but that was mostly because from what I had heard Emmett wasn't actually the one that had pulled the arm off and I understood that Emmett didn't actually _want_ to hurt Bella, but the instincts to protect a mate were to high.

Esme was still a wreck, trying to get the two to talk to each other though that was clearly a lost cause, and Carlisle was much in the same state but was much better at hiding these emotions.

Alice was still her always happy go lucky self, but sometimes she would get really upset of pissed off for no apparent reason and I assumed that this had something to do with her inability to see what was going to happen.

On Friday afternoon Bella and I were sitting in the bleachers outside during gym. We hadn't bothered to get changed today and the Coach hadn't said anything. She was lying across the bleaches with her head in my lap and I was stroking her hair. Then, she brought up the dreaded subject again.

"There's only about a week left." She sang cheerily.

"Till what Bella?" I was playing dumb.

"Till your birthday of course!"

I took a deep breath. "You didn't plan anything did you?" I looked at her cautiously. I could see Jessica, Lauren and Mike sitting a few steps below us and to the left. Jessica looked up at us curiously, soon followed by Lauren and Mike. I wondered if they had heard us.

She answered my question with a question.

"Why are you so against us doing anything to celebrate?"

"I just don't want a big fuss made over my birthday."

"What's your birthday Edward?" Jessica called. Bella and I looked at the trio to see Jessica and Lauren grinning at us.

I was more than ready to tell them off for listening to our private conversation but Bella answered before I said anything.

"On the twentieth, and apparently I am not allowed to do anything to celebrate." Bella rolled her eyes.

"Oh why not!" Jessica looked delighted to have the chance to have a civil conversation with one of the Cullen's. "I mean you only turn eighteen once!"

"Yer Edward, you'll never really turn 18 again." She gave me a meaningful look and I understood immediately. I would pretend to turn 18 many more times, as she no doubt had done.

"Yes but I will have many, many more birthdays to look forward to." I rose an eyebrow at her.

"That's not the same." She muttered.

"Personally I think that we should save the celebrations for my one hundredth." I grinned at her. The others laughed good naturedly.

"We all must celebrate on our one hundredth birthdays." Bella grinned at me. I wondered what exactly she did on her one hundredth.

The bell rang then and I heard cheering from all over the school. Jessica and Lauren jumped up and started doing some strange kind of swing dance where they grabbed onto each others arms and wrists. Even I had to laugh at that.

Bella sat up and then stood up, as did I, and I offered her my hand. "M'lady." I grinned at her. She giggled and took my hand.

"What a fine gentlemen." I wrapped my arms round her waist and swayed with her before planting a kiss on her lips.

"I love you."

"I love you too." I would never tire of those words.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

I've gotta say, I slept wayyy to much the first day of the holidays. I got up at two pm much to Bella's amusement. She was staying the night with me, as per usual, but she wasn't avoiding her house as much as I thought that she would after the fight. This was a good thing if you ask me. The tension between Rosalie and Bella was still crazy but Esme would have gone crazy if Bella had avoided the mansion.

So, whenever we went to the Cullen house I got a little bit tense because that kind of atmosphere was just floating round the house. And that was weird because usually this was such a happy and peaceful place. And to be quite honest, I missed the happy atmosphere that I was used to.

And I was worried that things weren't going to go back to normal, and despite what everyone said this was my fault.

Because I was so worried and guilty I was having a hard time sleeping, add to that that I was sure that Bella was planning something for my birthday, and that she was becoming more and more…. adventurous when concerning our physical relationship. Now I was all for that, but kissing her every night and feeling her cold little body pressed up against my warm one, all of the edges and lines touching so that there was no room left between us, being able to feel her perfect round breasts pressed up against my chest while she tugged on my hair and moaned into my mouth was all too much for me.

I used to have such good control. Control over myself, my emotions and my body. Sure, I was a teenage guy and I still had to 'take care' of myself at least every second day, but that was before I met Bella. She had me jerking off at least once a day, usually twice. And it still wasn't enough. And so now that we had progressed even further, and we were acting like this right before I went to bed, I didn't have to time to indulge myself with another round of admitted self abuse before I went to sleep. And I know that she knows about my constant issue whenever we do shit like that because she can feel it. And it gives me a little bit too much pride to know that she enjoys it.

I didn't want her to stop by any means. But have you ever slept with a dick so fucking hard that a chainsaw couldn't cut through?

Yer well I have and I have got some advice for you.

Do not fucking try.

That shit hurts like a bitch and is still there in the morning.

I hoped that my hard on went away during the night for Bella's sake if not my own but I wasn't to sure.

Alls that I knew was that I had the worst case of blue balls since the week in nineteen forty when Rosalie refused to sleep with Emmett. Probably worse.

It was worth it though, and my morning showers took surprisingly less time now, because it took me all of a minute to cum.

Too bad that I no longer bad anywhere that I need to be in the morning right.

It was the Saturday before my birthday, which was on the following Monday, and we were sitting in the Cullen's living room. I knew that Rosalie and Emmett were hunting, that Carlisle was working and that Jasper was in the library studying another book on the civil war (though I saw no real point because I knew that for the next week he would bitch about everything that was wrong with the book) and comparing his latest read to others. I had no idea where Alice and Esme were though, and the thought hadn't really crossed my mind. I was happily induced in my Bella bubble and was quite happy to spend the rest of my lazy Saturday sitting in the Cullen's backyard with her. The weather was surprisingly draw and there was no rain, apparently there would be sun tomorrow.

So the whole Alice Esme thing hadn't really crossed my mind until Alice jumped from the second story window over our heads and landed in front of us.

"Red or blue?" She asked us.

"For what?" Bella said. Maybe Alice jumping from windows and asking people their preferences on different colours was a common occurrence in the Cullen household.

"Do I need to answer that Bella?" She rose one eyebrow.

"Erm no."

Alice sighed. "Edward, red or blue?"

"Blue," I said, thinking about what Bella looked like when she was wearing the colour blue. "definitely blue."

"Good, blue is good." She walked away, jumping back up to the window, but not before I heard her muttering something about 'should have been done days ago'.

"What's with the colours?" I asked Bella.

"Alice is Alice, do you expect me to understand everything that she does?"

It hadn't escaped my notice that her answer didn't specifically relate to this particular event of Alice-strangeness. I didn't think that that was a big deal, I would come to regret that soon.


	19. Chapter 19 Home Is Where The Heart Is

**Sorry for the wait on this chapter guys. If there's anything that's confusing then m me or leave a review saying that you don't understand, it made sence in my head but luckily for you guys you don't have to hang around up there, so it might sound like jibberish to you.**

**Remember to leave some love :)**

I was confused, and with fair reason if you ask me.

I had absolutely no recollection of going to Chicago recently, so I had no idea why I was suddenly standing in front of my old house on an already hot day. My guess was that it was only morning, the sun was not fully set and there weren't many people around, most of the windows were still closed and the curtains still drawn. The next door neighbour, Mrs. Kennedy, hadn't hoisted the flag yet. Her husband, who had died when I turned fourteen, had been an ex-army major, and as a sign of respect to her husband and her country she raised the flag once she awoke every morning at approximately nine am. The fact that the flag wasn't up yet was a clear indicator that it was before that time.

"Huh," I muttered. "Bella do you – " I turned looking for her, but found that she wasn't with me. I guess that I had gotten used to her presence and suddenly I missed her terribly.

Sighing heavily and still heavily confused, I wondered where to go. I couldn't go to the house because we didn't own this house anymore. I turned and started to walk to that park about a kilometer away. I didn't know where else to go but I knew that my mother used to like to go to the park, before dad died that is, and I wondered if she was there now.

Then I heard the front door of my old house open, an extremely familiar voice ringing out a love filled good bye and then footsteps starting to walk across the wooden veranda.

With shocked eyed, I slowly turned to face the house and the man that I had thought was dead.

But there he was. Still tall, still lean and borderline lanky, with wise eyes and strong jaw, his brown hair styled formally and ready for a trim, Edward Anthony Masen Senior was walking towards me and still very much alive.

"Dad?" I said quietly, but there was no reply. "Dad, what…. what's happening? I though that you died."

Dad walked right by me and I wondered what I had done wrong. Sure, dad would ignore me sometimes but never to this extent. So I did what any curious teenage boy would – I followed. I tried to get his attention as we walked through Chicago on the summer morning, talking to him, asking him questions and waving my hands in front of his face and more than likely looking like a lunatic to anybody that happened to see us, but the people that passed us on the street ignored me just as thoroughly as dad did. I thought that this behaviour was odd. Dad always drove to work so I wondered why we were walking, why would he start now on a summers day?

Dad took an unexpected turn, and suddenly we weren't in the middle of the city an in the morning. The cold sky was dark and the noise from the cars and buses was distant. We were in an alley and dad was staring at me grimly.

I stood stunned in the middle of the alley between the entry and my dad. I was so stunned not just because of the sudden change the temperature and light but because I knew where we were. This alleyway allowed the user a quicker passageway from a small but excellent takeaway food restaurant and the parking lot near the main road. Many of the users of the restaurant parked here, this way they didn't have to go through all the back streets to get to the restaurant, why drive for fifteen minutes when you can walk for five? Unfortunately dad and I weren't the only ones that knew about this shortcut, neither were the other innocent people that use the shop. _They_ knew where the short cut was and knew that dad was getting food there that night.

The police had told us where dad had been found when they came to 'apologize for our loss'. Mum had asked for all the information, she told them not to leave anything out.

And they didn't disappoint.

If you went to that alley after that night you would clearly be able to see the faded blood stains still on the alley wall and the dumpster. I had gone to see, unable to stop myself, and had thrown up in the dumpster when I saw the blood. I looked there now but there was no blood just the brick of the building and the blue painted metal of the dumpster.

"Why are we here?" I asked quietly. Dad shrugged. "Let's go, mum will be waiting for us now." I was desperate to get him from the alleyway. Dad didn't follow, but instead held out his hand. I sighed, thinking 'could this get weirder?' and took his hand.

As to answer my former question, yes, yes they could.

Dad and I were still together, holding hands for the first time since I was four, but we were also in front of us, as was my mother. I was eight and we went to the park for a picnic. Mum and dad were sitting on the blanket and I was running round them, then sprinting over to one of the trees.

Then I was ten and we were visiting my Aunt. Her kids, Alex and Samantha, were sitting next to an innocent me, who was completely clueless as to what they were planning to do to me after the adults left the room.

I was fifteen years old but only just. Today was my birthday, the last one with my parents. I had not wanted a birthday party because, honestly, who was I going to ask to come? Instead we went to dinner at a restaurant that I had liked – just the three of us – and the night had been great except for the fact that my dad questioned why I hadn't wanted a party, and when I told him the reason, had scoffed and said that if I put in more effort to get along with the other kids than maybe I would have some friends. I didn't know whether to hang my head in shame at dad's disapproval or to tell the idiot to shove any views about my social life where they would never see the light of day.

"_What are we going to do next time?"_ Mother asked as we left.

"_Nothing."_ I answered shortly, still stung by dad's friend comment. I think that he felt bad, putting his arm around my should and shocking me into silence.

"_What, no sweet sixteen?"_ Mum asked me teasingly. I rose an eyebrow at her.

"_Seriously?" _

"_At least let us do something for your eighteenth."_ Dad said.

"_You can't miss your eighteenth."_ My mother chirped in excitedly.

"_Alright, we can do something for my eighteenth." _

Then we were at the meadow. Bella wasn't here, but the sun was.

"You are eighteen now." Dad said, pacing purposely. "And adult," and then quieter. "a man."

"Not yet," I said and his blue eyes snapped to mine. "Not eighteen yet."

The blue eyes rolled. "I'm off by just more than an hour, I think that it's safe to say that you are eighteen." Dad chuckled. Was it really my birthday? "You've got some tough decisions to make son, things will change and people get left behind. You'll need to make sure that all of your loose ends are tired up, to lessen the hurt." Dad sighed. "Tough decisions, but your mind is already made up. I like Bella though, she nice, very pretty." Dad mused. "Good work." He said slyly. "Go to her now." Dad said, pointing north. "Don't keep her waiting son."

His expression suddenly turned tender, an expression that I didn't often see on Edward's face. "Happy Birthday son."

A strangled cry escaped my lips as I shot up in my bed, looking around wildly and grasping at the sheets.

"Edward, Edward!" The Angel voice cried. "Sweetheart, relax!"

I turned, seeing her sitting on the bed with concern and love in her eyes. "Bella!" I gasped, throwing my arms round her neck and puling her towards me.

"Edward what is wrong?" She said tenderly as she wrapped her arm round me.

What was wrong? The dream had not been scary by any means, strange yes, scary no. But the dream had been so real, I had not known that I had been dreaming.

"Nothing," I gasped, still trying to catch my breath. "Just a strange dream." I lay back on the bed with her, closing my eyes again when I realized the time. "Way too early." I groaned. Seven o'clock was too early on the holidays.

"Come on," She giggled. "It's your birthday! Your mothers waiting for you. I think that she is going to make you pancakes."

I grinned, my mum made the best pancakes.

I sat up and leaned on her shoulder, taking confidence in the knowledge that I could do this without making her uncomfortable.

"Are you sure that you are alright?" Her teasing voice was gone and she was back to being concerned.

"I'm sure Bella, just a strange dream."

"Alright then." She said, getting up off of the bed and then helping me to stand up next to her. She leaned up on her tippy toes and wrapped her arms round my neck. "And happy eighteenth birthday Edward." Her lips met mine and then everything was alright again.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

Bella was right, as per usual, though I have got no idea how she knew. When I got to the kitchen after my shower, mother was already there with a stack of pancakes, butter, strawberry and chocolate. Best birthday breakfast material that was.

She had gotten me a few gifts, among which were an ITunes gift card, a few DVD's and a new Nikon camera, the kind that was big and looked like one of the older one's that you could change the lenses on, but it still had a digital screen. I was ecstatic. I had taken a photography class at school but Forks didn't offer anything apart from your average art class and a type of textiles class that I hadn't expected a small school to have. The school probably didn't have enough funding for a black room.

Bella, mum and I had made plans to go to a restaurant in Port Angeles to have lunch but I had put my foot down at that, saying that that was all that I wanted to do. I just wanted to have a quiet night with mum and Bella or maybe the rest of the Cullen's.

Mother went up the stairs to get showered and dressed after watching me gleefully mess around with my gifts, taking pictures and reading the backs of the DVD's even if I had seen the most of them before. When she went up I put one of the movies into the player and lounged about on the couch until we were ready to go.

We had planned to pick Bella up at the Cullen mansion and I had dibsed driving. With mum in the car I couldn't go as fast as I usually did, but I still went faster then she did, so it was a win / win situation. Driving past the inhabited parts of town and through the dense forest, the trees on either side closing in on is, I realized that I had come to love this place, despite my complaining.

I had moved here expecting to suffer my way through another year and a half before I could go to college. I had wondered what mother would do then. Would we both move closer to whatever school that I chose, would I leave her in the rainy town or would I go to the university of Washington so that I could still be close to her if she needed me. Then after I met Bella, I knew that I would do whatever she wanted to do. She made me adamant in staying here for as long as she was, even if I had to stick around with the rain and the cold. Being in this tiny town had seemed like a chore. But now, now I was slightly regretful knowing that someday soon I would have to leave, either for security or to keep up appearances.

It was then that it struck me that Chicago was no longer 'home'. I never said 'back home' anymore, home had changed. Home, in a perfect and sappy definition, wasn't just the place that you were staying or the place that you grew up, but home was where you felt happy, safe and loved.

_Home is where the heart is._

Isn't that was mother always said? What you hear those wise old women say when trying to teach the younger generations about matters of the heart?

_Home is where the heart is._

So where was home now? At my mother's home in Forks? At the Cullen mansion? Does home even have to be a geographical location, or can home be something else, or more so, some_one _else.

Did that make Bella home? She had my heart, most certainly. I felt safe with her, I felt loved and I felt needed. I felt like I could protect her, even though I couldn't, not physically anyway. I loved Bella, more than I thought that it was possible to love another person.

_Home is where the heart is._

She always had my heart, no matter if we were physically together. I knew then, without a doubt, that she was home. What did where we were matter when we had each other? I could be in Alaska or Spain or anywhere in the world and as long as I was with her I would be home.

This thought filled me with a squishy warm feeling that burst in my chest and spread through my stomach and torso, making my toes curl and my mouth pull up into a grin.

I was _loved_ and I was _wanted. _I had a home and somebody that missed me when I was not around. And this wasn't just somebody, this was _Bella_.

"What's got you grinning over there?" My mother's voice snapped me from my musings.

"Just thinking."

"About." But her tone implied that she already knew what.

"Bella." _What else?_

"Ahh," She grinned and nodded. "And what about dear Bella?"

"Nothing specific."

"When's her birthday?" I didn't know if the question was random, if my birthday made her think about this or if she was thinking back to my married proposal-at-Bella's-birthday comment from the other night.

"September the eighteenth." I nodded as I answered her.

"That's just two months away."

I gulped. "Yes."

"Hmmm."

"Why do you ask?" She was planning something, I knew that voice, something was going on in that brilliant mind of hers.

"I was just thinking."

"About…." I said, repeating her words from earlier. I could see her smile from the corner of my eye and knew that she knew that I was repeating our previous conversation.

"Just how my son is going to convince my future daughter in law to marry him."

"You think that she won't say yes?" I asked, trying to keep the hurt from my voice. As if I wasn't nervous enough about proposing.

"Oh she will say yes even if you just asked her in the school cafeteria, but for goodness sake Edward please put a little bit more effort into it than that."

"You know that I will." I said. I was a little offended that she thought that I would do something like that. Sure, Bella liked to keep things simple and would more than likely kick up a fuss that I was going to make a big deal about taking her on a date or however I was going to propose, but I think that I could do a little bit bitter than a cafeteria. I really didn't want her to think back on how I proposed and having thoughts about uncomfortable chairs and smelly human food that made her want to gag.

We started to wind through the Cullen's driveway now and I stopped all conversation on proposals, not wanting to risk them hearing.

When I finally pulled up in front of the house, Bella was already waiting, sitting on the porch steps with a midnight blue bag next to her. I realized that her dress was the same colour and grinned, I loved that colour on her. She stood up as we got out of the car and I pulled her into a hug once I got close enough to. She pulled away to kiss me and I couldn't even be embarrassed that my mother was watching, probably still thinking about weddings and grandchildren. Too bad that she would never get any, but thank God that Bella can't read minds.

"Happy birthday." She whispered against my lips.

Grinning and not thinking about the repercussions of my words or what they could quiet easily imply I said, "You already said that this morning."

Her eyes widened fractionally, as did mine once I realized my mistake.

"But over the phone isn't the same." She shrugged. I sighed in relief, thankful for her save.

My mother greeted Bella as the front door flew open and an excitable Emmett and Alice dragging a tired looking Jasper came from the house.

"Happy birthday Edward!" Alice squealed, hugging my tightly and stopping my breathing.

"He needs to breathe Alice!" Bella said sternly.

She let go of me but I didn't have much time to recover before Emmett picked me up in a hug that had me feet dangling off of the ground.

"Happy birthday Eddie!" The boy really was like a two year old, and I suddenly understood his relationship with Rosalie. She loved children, and he loved pretty girls and sex. After he let go of me, Jasper clasped my shoulder.

"Happy birthday kid." He grinned. He had gotten quite fond of that nick name.

"Thanks Jasper." I grinned, thankful for the non life threatening greeting.

"Esme and Carlisle would be here too but Alice sent them off." Jasper rolled his eyes, but smiled at his wife fondly.

"Sent the off?" I questioned.

"To get…..something."

"Should have been done weeks ago!" Alice exclaimed, shocking my mother who up until that point had been having a conversation with Alice.

"What did they need to get?" I asked.

"Oh nothing." Alice turned to wink at my mother.

_Okayyyyyyyy….. since when did they have secret codes and secrets?_

"What time is our booking?" Bella chimed in.

"At one so we've got about an hour." I told her.

"We should get going then." I nodded and opened the backseat for her, knowing that my mother would prefer to sit in the front.

The drive went quick enough, we made small talk but there wasn't any mention of past birthdays. Bella's more than likely would have been lies, and mine and my mothers would have been to much for Elizabeth to hear or talk about. They all involved dad, and she didn't like mentioning her husband unless necessary.

My last two birthdays, my sixteenth and my seventeenth, had been the only one without my dad, and they had both been uneventful, boring and horrible.

Mum was still in barely functioning mode and had forgotten until the actual day. I hadn't minded, I didn't want to celebrate. I had know that she would get upset about dad not being there and hadn't known if she would try to do something or shut down again. The guilt that she had felt after she realized that se had forgotten made me feel terrible though, and part of me wished that I had told her. If she had forgotten, but hadn't known that I knew that she had forgotten, then she probably wouldn't of felt as bad.

My seventeenth, I had insisted that there were no celebrations or going out to resturants, but instead that we would have pizza and watch movies. This birthday had been marginally better. She had remembered and only cried twice and mentioned dad once. I was just happy that my birthday was on a Saturday that year and not a Thursday because I was so fucking sick of tacos.

This year though, this was the year that she wanted to do something big, something to symbolize me becoming a man or whatever. And the whole party/celebration idea had been dads. That was part of the reason that I didn't want to do anything. I was concerned about what her reaction would be if there was a party of any kind. She would be reminded of the times that her and dad had spoken about what they were going to do to celebrate, and now dad was gone along with the plans and we had moved to the other side of the country.

I hadn't been altogether surprised when she had offered to go to a resturants, but I had been surprised about how insistent she had been on the matter, and annoyed at how much Bella sided with her. I had let them have their way but I wasn't altogether happy.

When we got to the restaurant I saw from the corner of my eyes my mother taking a deep breath and then opening the door without waiting for me to do so for her. Bella leaned forward and squeezed my shoulders.

"Don't be so tense," She whispered. "she just wants you to be happy, and by doing this she is happy. Just let us take you to lunch."

I nodded but sighed heavily, wishing that I could explain to her but knowing that I couldn't right now.

She opened the door without waiting for me and I grumbled about them not letting me be useful as I got out. I locked the car and hooked my arm through Bella's before meeting my mother at the top of the stairs to the restaurant that Bella and I had our first 'date' in.


	20. Chapter 20 Birthday Boy

Hello, sorry for the delay in chapters, I've just been busy. I will try to get the updates up quicker but school comes first.

And can I just say that in Australia baseball isn't a very common sport I don't know anybody that plays baseball and I don't even know If we have got a team. Google came up with three different baseball teams for Chicago, so I hope that nobody minds that in this fan fiction, Edward will be a White Sox's fan.

* * *

The restaurant wasn't crowed, which wasn't altogether surprising, but there were a few other people here.

_At least the service should be quick._

Our server was a girl just older then me, but our server was a man probably in his mid forties. I was glad about this at first, I mean, you don't expect an older guy to ogle your incredibly hot girlfriend, nor do you want that. But shit, it gets awkward when said middle aged guy started to check out your mother.

_That's disgusting, and if you don't get your hand off of her, I'll karate kick your ass. _

I could that she was uncomfortable, but behind that I could see something else in her eyes. She looked…..flattered?

_Ewwww._

I knew that nothing would even happen between my mother and strange-waiter—guy, as he shall henceforth be known, but still, knowing that she kinda liked that attention was weird.

Bella, who was unable to get out of eating anything, ordered a mushroom ravioli and my mother got some sort of ricotta. I got the lasagna, like the last time, ignoring the both of them when they rolled their eyes.

Fuck I loved lasagna.

The whole lunch was over quickly, Bella didn't give me a present and my mother didn't give me another one. We made small talk and I let my mother pay the bill at the end without a fuss, plus I got to drive. I was happy and more than willing to get changed to my pajamas and watch some DVD's on the couch with pizza for dinner.

The Italians were geniuses. Lasagna and pizza from one country, and they made spaghetti too, genius.

The silence was comfortable but I wished that we had some music. My CD player – IPod dock – Radio broke the other week and I had not gotten a replacement yet.

"Are you really opposed to doing anything tonight?" Bella said, leaning forwards again and rubbing my shoulders. Her voice was more sultry than usual, but there was a hint of something else, concern maybe? Without thinking about what I was saying, I asked her –

"That depends, what did you have in mind?" My voice was lower too, and I was thinking about things that I really shouldn't be with my mother sitting next to my. I quickly tried to snap out of my horny-teenager mind set and focused on what was going on.

"Come over to my place for a bit. We won't do anything, just hang out for a little while."

I shot a glance over to my mother, wondering how she would react to this. She caught my eye and smiled, nodding encouragingly.

"You're sure?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"I'm a big girl Edward, I can take care of myself besides, you only get one eighteenth birthday."

_Could people please stop telling me that._

"Alright then." I wasn't going to argue about spending alone time with Bella.

We took Bella to her house and after giving me a quick peck on the cheek and hugging mum, she ran at a human speed to the house. She was going to come and get me at about seven.

Mum and I drove to the house in relative silence.

When we got home she asked me if I had enjoyed lunch and I replied with a yes, before the both of us started to watch one of my birthday DVD's.

"I'm sorry." Mother said quietly after about an hour.

"About what?" I said, chewing on a piece of liquorish and not taking my eyes off of the screen.

"We didn't really do anything today."

"I didn't want too." I still wouldn't take my eyes off of the screen, somehow knowing were she was going take this.

"But it was your _eighteenth_." She put extra emphasis on the word, as if this would make me understand what I already knew. "We said that this was going to be the year that we did something big, have a celebration, and we even got you to agree – "

"But that was before everything changed." I cut her off, knowing that I was probably being a jerk but I didn't want to talk about this right now, not with that dream still fresh in my mind. To my horror, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and my throat tighten.

Dad and I hadn't been close, but still, the guy had been my dad. When I had been a little kid, too naive to see the world and the people here with me for what they really were I had wanted to be like my dad. To me, he had been like a superhero, the big, strong man that could take care of me and mother and put all of the bad guys in jail.

I could take the long hours because my best friends dad owned a big business but my dad was a fucking superhero.

Lets just say that by nine I realized that I was being a dickhead, and that my dad was being a dick.

Not in those words or anything, I might have a foul mouth now but I wasn't always like this, I was at some stage a respectable young man….boy, whatever.

The point is that as I grew up I realized that me and dad had nothing in common, something that my 'superhero' had apparently already gathered. Dad hadn't seemed too bothered when I had stopped calling him superhero, or as I had gotten even older, basically stopped talking to the guy at all, though mother had asked me at the time why I stopped. You're probably thinking that it's all my fault that we had a shit-tacular relationship right about now right? We'll, it's not. If dad had wanted to talk, he was the adult, he was my dad, he could of spoken to me had he seen fit.

But despite all of this – he was still my dad, so of course I was upset when he had died. I wasn't as bad as mother, but I didn't particularly enjoy the reminders. This birthday stuff had gotten me thinking about him for some reason, and I assumed that that was what had brought on that dream.

I blinked quickly, hoping to will away the tears before mother could see them, but she did anyway.

"Oh Edward – "

"Don't," I told her. "Just don't, not over this."

"What happened affected you more than you let me see." She said quietly and I knew that she was upset.

"You weren't in any state to see, you loved him more than I did. I had to take care of you then, not the other way around. You were my responsibility." I hadn't meant that to be an insult, I wasn't angry that she had been such a mess, not at all. And as far as I had been concerned, she was my responsibility. I was the man of the house now and it was my job to take care of her.

"I didn't – I hadn't wanted to…..you should not have had to take care of me, I'm sorry – "

"I didn't mean that as an insult mum," I smiled at her gently, trying to show her that I was telling the truth. "I understood that you needed to grieve, and who was I to deny you that. I didn't need you to take care of me then, I was alright. I mean yer – what happened sucked, but I can't change that and I just had to deal with that." I shrugged again. "No big deal." I turned my attention to the television, hoping that she knew that I didn't want to talk.

She didn't way anything else for about ten minutes, before she excused herself. I could hear her footsteps on the stairs and knew that she was about to cry.

I felt like shit now.

I knew better than to go to her and try to comfort her. I sighed out loud, wishing that I could go back twenty minutes.

At six thirty, mum came downstairs and told me that she couldn't be bothered cooking, and that she was going to get some dinner. She kissed the top of my hair and told me that she would wait up.

I still felt horrible at seven when Bella knocked on the door. I sighed into her hair as I hugged her and told her what happened when she asked.

"I am sure that she does not blame you, she just does not like that you felt like you had to take care of her."

"But I did!"

"Yes, but she did not know that." I sighed and came to a stop at the drivers side of the car and opened the door for Bella, but when she didn't move to get in I looked up at her. She was smiling at me and dangling the keys from her slender fingers. I looked at them, then looked back up at her with raised eyebrows.

"Because you are so adamant against me getting you a gift, then you can drive the car, I know how much you like this thing."

My mouth was agape as I stared back at the car keys. "But you never let anybody drive this." The thing with Alice was a once off.

"Are you saying that you don't want to drive?" She asked me playfully

"Oh I'll drive." I nodded eagerly, reaching my hand out for the keys. She laughed at me and left me staring at them in my palm as she walked away. The beep of the horn brought me back to the present, and I looked in to see Bella leaning over the seats.

"You coming?" She grinned.

I carefully got into the car and started it. I felt a thrill go though me as I felt and heard the purr of the engine.

"You are such a guy." She groaned.

"Lucky for you, right?" My voice didn't have the right amount of teasing.

"Let's go." She flicked my arm, lightly as to not bruise me.

I nodded and sped from the driveway, going above the speed limit as soon as my foot went on the accelerator.

I went faster as we got away from civilization and was surprised that Bella hadn't told me to slow yet.

"You are a pretty good driver for a human." She mused.

I smirked, I couldn't help myself. "Just wait till I'm a vampire." I heard her sigh, but she didn't say anything more.

We started to drive up the driveway before she spoke again.

"You know that the last time that on of us had a birthday was in 1935 right?"

"Yer, you told me the other day."

I pulled up in front of the house, pouting as I gave her the keys. She walked me up the stairs with her hand in mine but stopped me before I opened the door. She stepped in front of me so that she could wrap her arms round my.

"Please be nice.' She whispered before she kissed me.

"Nice about what?" I asked her after I regained my breathing. She smiled again and opened the door, pulling me along side her.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDWARD!" The chorus of voice startled me, the noise, mostly Emmett's booming voice, broke the quite and I could feel my heart beating in my chest.

I could see Emmett, Jasper and Alice standing next to the grand piano in the living room, Rosalie leaning on the couch with her lips pursed tightly, as if to tell me that she hadn't wished me a happy birthday and then Esme, my mother and Carlisle standing next to a huge, and I mean huge as in gigantic, blue cake. There were blue balloons and streamers all over the room.

I blinked a few times before a grin came over my face and I started to laugh. I couldn't help myself.

I didn't know what was so funny, but apparently my sub conscious thought that something was hilarious. My laughter soon spread to Jasper and the others in that corner of the room started to laugh too.

"Not angry?" Bella asked me hopefully.

"No, not angry." I chuckled, kissing her cheek.

"I told you!" Alice cried. "You people never believe me!"

"Alice, we _always_ believe you." Jasper reminded her.

"But not about this!" She whined.

"You knew all along didn't you?" I said to my mother as Bella dragged me into the room.

"All along, but I didn't help with this," She gestured her arms to the room. "which looks amazing, just by the way," she said the Esme and Carlisle. Alice beamed.

"So this was your idea?" I asked Alice. She bit her lip and shook her head. I turned on Bella. At least she looked sheepish. "Bella!"

"What?" She asked me innocently.

"Open the presents!" Alice squealed. She started to bounce again and I looked at where she was pointing. A stack of presents in blue and gold wrapping paper that I had not seen before were on the table next to the piano.

"I said that – "

"But we did not listen." Alice said simply, taking my spare hand and pulling Bella and I over to the stack of presents, letting go of my hand and shoving a present into it. Bella released my other hand so that I could get a better grip.

"You honestly did-"

"We wanted to." Carlisle said, cutting off my complaining. I did not want them to think that I was ungrateful, so I thanked him and went to open it.

"That one's from Rose, Emmett and Jazz." Alice said. I smiled at each one of them, even Rosalie, but doubted that she had anything to do with this. The box was very light, almost felt empty, but I internally shrugged and ripped the wrapping off, only to find that the box had been painted blue. I looked at Emmett, who was shaking with the chuckles that he was trying to keep in.

"Just do it." I told him, and without an hesitation his laughter filled the room. I opened the top of the painted blue box, only to find that the box was actually empty.

"Ermm, thankyou?" My statement sounded like a question. This set Emmett off again, but this time he was not the only one.

"It is actually a new stereo system for your car, just like the old one but an updated model." Jasper told me grinned. I could feel my face light up and understanding.

"Thankyou!" I said, more sincerely this time. I heard a snap and saw a flash and looked towards my mother, who was holding the camera that she had gotten me.

"You need the memories." She smiled.

"That is true," Bella said, though my mother would not know exactly how true Bella meant. "They fade more than you would think." She gave me a meaningful look and I heard Rosalie hiss, though my mother wouldn't.

"The real stereo is in Carlisle's office, we thought that this would be funnier." Jasper continued.

"Oh," I said, still smiling. Not even Rosalie hissing could damper my spirits. "Wait, why Carlisle's office?" I asked, shooting a look to the vampire in question. Carlisle looked just as confused as me and shrugged. I looked back to Jasper who had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Ya know, I have got no idea." He 'hmmed' then snapped his eyes back to mine. "Anyways, keep going." Jasper gestured to the pile of presents.

"This one is from Bella." Alice said, handing me the next box. This one was thinner but also wider and longer in some places.

I took the box from her and looked at Bella. "You better not have spent much." I told her.

"Not a dime, not recently anyway." She put her hand over her heart. "Some of them belonged to Renee and eventually she gave them to me. The others I bought."

I raised my eyebrow at her, knowing that part of this gift would be over a hundred years old.

"Who is Renee?" My mother asked quietly, noticing that the room had suddenly gotten a bit tense. After she said this though, I felt a calm spread over the room.

"She was my biological mother." Bella answered simply, but her eyes hardened.

"Oh," My mother looked flustered. "Sorry, I did not know that – "

Bella waved a casual hand in her direction. "No problem. Esme and Carlisle are the only real parents that I had anyway." I saw Esme and Carlisle beam at this.

Bella nodded at me encouragingly and I went to open the wrapping paper when Alice stopped me.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. Her topaz eyes were wide with panic and Jasper went to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"What is it Alice?" Bella asked her carefully.

"I just think that you should wait to opened that until later." Her eyes were still wide and I just knew that Jasper was pumping her full of calm.

"Alright then." I said, putting the gift on the table. My mother looked confused. I could relate.

"Mine next!" Alice squealed, her excitement back just like that. I could feel the lighter atmosphere returning to me too, and the rest of the room. I wondered if this was Jaspers doing.

Her parcel was small and thin. I assumed that she had gotten me a gift certificate. I was right, a $1000 gift certificate for my favorite clothing store. Typical, I thought grinned. "Thankyou Alice." I told her as I hugged her. She wrapped her tiny and freakishly strong arms around my fragile and human neck and I gasped fro breath.

"That's alright. But last one!" She sang, shoving the last parcel into my hands. "This one is from Esme and Carlisle." I look towards the two and smiled in thanks. The box was in the shape of a cube, and as I started to unwrap, I saw what looked like glass.

Once I had all of the wrapping off, I saw what it was, the year and the signatures.

It was a baseball from the year 1917, the year that I knew that Carlisle started to like baseball. It was from the White Sox vs The Philadelphia Athletics. Players from the White Sox had signed the ball, and I wondered how Carlisle had gotten the ball.

I looked up at him, opening my mouth to say something but not being able to.

Esme looked happy, and Carlisle's smile was slightly smug, but his eyes were, as always, kind.

"Aw shit," Jasper grumbled. "You guys win."

Emmett cursed under his breath and then apologized to Esme and my mother.

"Win what?" Mother asked. I was glad that she did, I had wanted to know but was still shocked.

"We made a bet about what would shock him the most, the party or whose gift. Emmett bet on our present, Bella and I bet on the party and Esme and Carlisle bet in their gift, and we do not let Alice play."

"How come?" My mother looked upset at them signaling Alice out. Meanwhile, I was started to get some sort of sense back.

"Alice is very intuitive, she is almost always right." Jasper replied.

"Almost. Pfft." Alice grumbled.

"Not always." Emmett whined. "How come you guys get to win." Emmett sulked.

"There present was the most surprising?" My mother suggested helpfully. Bella snorted next to me.

"But!" Jasper exclaimed, the soundly loud voice making my jump. "We did not know what their gift was, plus we expected Bella's to be opened now too."

"Thankyou," I said once Jasper had a little rant. "thankyou so much, but how did you know that I was a White Sox fan?" I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Plus, I love the White Sox.

"You told me remember? That time that you saw the jersey from back then."

"Oh yer." That was the time that James and Victoria had tracked us, they had not played since.

"What is it?" My mother asked me.

"A ball from 1917, it's signed by the White Sox's."

"Aww! But Dad, I claimed that on the will!" Emmett moaned. Esme smiled, Alice squeaked and Carlisle rolled his eyes.

"I know."

"Wait seriously?" I asked them. Why would a vampire need a will?

"So Emmett thinks." Carlisle smirked.

The Emmett in question pouted, and I stuck my tongue out and held the ball tightly to my chest."

"Do they ever grow up?" Bella asked Esme and Elizabeth. "Or will I live the rest of my life with men-children?"

"Sweetheart they can be five or five hundred but most of them a children inside." My mother said. If only she knew….

"Tell me about it." Esme muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" Jasper and Carlisle exclaimed. Emmett and I just looked at each other and shrugged, knowing that they were partially right. But I could act like a grown up if I wanted to. Sometimes…..

We stayed until ten, eating cake and talking and taking pictures. Bella present lay unwrapped on the table with the rest of the presents just waiting to be unwrapped. On of the best parts was when Emmett, who like the rest of the Cullen's was hiding cake in the serviettes on their laps, got his hand 'accidently' pushed by Jasper so he got most of the piece of cake shoved in his mouth and had to eat the whole thing.

I drove to the house with mum after hugging them all, except for Rosalie who retreated upstairs, but I knew that Bella would be running to the house. I was looking forward to unwrapping the present with her, curious as to what she had gotten.

"You were right about Rosalie." My mother said.

"What do you mean?"

"She seems so standoffish; I can see why she and Bella fight a lot."

"You have got no idea." I muttered, chuckling.

"Did you have a good night though?"

"Yes, it was excellent. Did you?"

"Yes, they are very nice people."

"That they are. And….. I am sorry about before, I did not mean to make you upset – I was only trying to offend you or anything, I honestly did not mind."

"I know sweetheart." She put her hand on mine. "What do you think that Bella got you?"

"No idea, but I hope to know what soon." How soon, she would hopefully not know.

I kissed her goodnight on the cheek when we got home, saying that I was tired from the big day and from getting up so early. She called me lazy but went to bed too.

Bella was there, sitting on my bed and fiddling with her hands. "So," She said as I walked to her with the presents in my hand. "Wanna see what I got you?"

* * *

Reviews are better than mysterious birthday gifts.


	21. Chapter 21 Gift

So I know that this chapter is shorter, it's six pages and far cry from the original twenty plus that they used to be, but this was the perfect way to end this chapter I thought.

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I kissed her goodnight on the cheek when we got home, saying that I was tired from the big day and from getting up so early. She called me lazy but went to bed too.

Bella was there, sitting on my bed and fiddling with her hands. "So," She said as I walked to her with the presents in my hand. "Wanna see what I got you?"

"Yes." I smiled at her. She was beautiful, her pale face illuminated by the moonlight. I watched as she leaned over to turn on the lamp.

I put the presents on my desk, putting the baseball the right way up and smirking as I out the box next to my laptop. Emmett was going to install it the next time that I came over, hopefully soon. The only gift that I did not put on the desk was Bella's, which I took over to the bed with me.

I watched as she turned around so that she was leaning on the headboard, and I sat with crossed legs opposite her, twirling the present in my hands.

"Do you know why Alice stopped me from opening this in front of everyone else?" I asked her. This had been bothering me for a while now, I couldn't understand why she would stop me. Unless the gift was something embarrassing like a sex book from 1910, which I doubted, then I didn't see what the problem was.

"Apparently she saw you getting a paper cut. She wouldn't tell us exactly what happened, but I can guess that the results would have been, erm…."

"Unsavory?" I chimed in, trying to be helpful.

Her soft laughter rang through the room. "That's a good way of putting it."

"So when is this from?" I asked her after she had become quiet, shaking the gift a little bit so that she would know what I was talking about.

"The collection started in 1908 I think, but when Renee got over her interest she gave me what she had because she knew that I had enjoyed it. When I started to work these were some of the things that I would allow myself to buy, and some of them were what Carlisle would get for me when I was unable to go to town, and some of the ones that we got after that."

Now I was really curious. I looked at the gift in my hands and then back up at her, the excitement building and my heart starting to beat a little bit faster. "Can I?" I asked her.

"That's why I gave it to you." She rolled her eyes. I put my finger under the wrapping paper but then thought better.

"Maybe you should," I said, holding the package to her, but I could tell that she was confused. "just incase." Understanding lit up her eyes and features and she took the present from my hands, putting her finger like I had and quickly ripped. Once she had that done she passed me the present back and I unwrapped the rest.

When I took off the packaging, I saw a number of old records and a blue manila folder. Each of the records were covered in a protective plastic wrap that had a label on them. The names of the composers were old artist, some that I did not recognize but some that I did, Debussy being among them.

I ran my fingers across the plastic, able to feel the groves on the antique records.

I opened the folder and found sheet music – most of which were yellowed with age.

"You won't know all of the composers, or all of the songs. There are works from even the more popular artists that you can still hear today that are in there that you never would have heard of, either because they had no more records of the music to turn to CD's or they didn't think that doing so was worth while. Over time the music has been lost to everybody that doesn't still have an original record of the sheet music. I have not been able to find another copy anywhere that I have looked, but I thought that you might like these. Something new to play, new people to hear…." She trailed off nervously and I realized that I had not said anything in a matter of minutes.

"Bella this is...thankyou so much, I love it."

I looked her in the eyes as I said this, and saw her own light up.

"Really? It wasn't a stupid idea?"

"No!" I exclaimed, probably a little bit to loudly. I looked towards the door, as if I could tell that my mother was awake by doing that. "Honestly, I love it, and now we have a reason to use the record player." I grinned.

"I hadn't even thought about how you were going to use them." Bella laughed. "I really should have thought that through."

I put the papers and the records on the bed so that I could lean over them to kiss her. She responded eagerly, sucking my bottom lip into her mouth and running her tongue over it. I moaned but as soon as I did she pulled away. I fell back onto the mattress with labored breathing, shocked again at the amount of power that she had over my body.

Though that power was also sort of unfortunate. "I should go and have a shower." I muttered, getting up off of the bed but angling myself so that she could not see my front. I found my towel and pajamas and heard her laughing as I left the room. "Very funny Bella." I muttered.

After an eventful shower where I _know _that I made a fool of myself because I _know_ that I groaned to loudly when I came and I _knew_ that she heard me, I went back to my room, trying not to show that I knew that she knew on my face.

She was polite and didn't say anything though, and I wondered if she had heard me before or if I had said anything in my sleep about us having sex before.

_Do you really even need to ask that? That is so fucking obvious…._

It's called wishful thinking asshole.

_With other people, yes, but you're just an idiot._

My internal monologue was such a bitch.

Sighing, I stretched out on the bed next to her. She was still sitting but her legs were stretched in front of her now and she was looking through the pictures on the birthday present camera.

"Your mum took some great photos." She said approvingly.

"She used to take photography classes. She liked what I was doing at school and got interested. She went really well too, but she stopped when dad got killed."

Bella stilled at my words, become like a statue again.

"Are you alright?" I asked her, moving my hand up to stroke her cheek.

"I don't know what to ask first." She laughed breathlessly, but the sound was still forced. "You did photography at school?"

"Erm yer, my last two years of middle school and at high school in Chicago." That was not what was really bothering her.

"And your dad – he was…. I – I thought that your dad just died." Bella stuttered. I felt like an asshole now.

_Told ya so._

Shut up, not the time.

My internal monologue stayed quiet after that, so I knew that even that part of me felt bad too.

I still had not told Bella, or any of the Cullen's, about how my dad had died. If I had been able to decide, my old friends in Chicago would not have known either, but dad had been a well-respected figure in Chicago and had been well known as one of the best lawyers around. Dad's death had been publicized in every newspaper in the city and had even been on the news a few times. The killers were caught and were still in prison – they had also been found guilty for the other crimes that they had been accused of, which made dads death even more pointless. But when I got to Forks, no one knew about dad. No one knew what had happened. Maybe Elizabeth was a divorcee, maybe dad had had a heart attack, no one knew. And I had liked that. Sure, in Chicago people had eventually moved on to new gossip, but I had suffered months of sympathy and sad stares. My few friends and acquaintances had treated me with kiddy gloves since dad had died and that was one of the reasons that I spent most of my time by myself. So, like that jackass that I was, I let people think whatever they wanted, I think that some of them were even under the assumption that my dad was still alive but just did not work in town, which made sense because mum worked in Port Angeles. Bella and the Cullen's all knew that my dad was dead, but they never questioned me or mum about dad. They respected that it was my story and that I would let them know what I was ready. And I was ready, I had been ready since I first met them. I trusted them enough to tell them, and I knew that I would not get upset by telling them, a little grossed out maybe, but not angry or sad.

But I was an asshole, and I never told them.

But in my defense, I had not really thought about telling them lately.

"You don't have to tell me," She said quietly. "I get that you would not want to talk about – "

"No it's fine – "

"You don't need to – "

"Bella! It's fine, honestly. That was an asshole move just blurting that out like that when you didn't know, I just keep forgetting that you don't know. I don't mind telling you, I just avoided doing so I guess. What happened isn't exactly something that I like to talk about, even if we weren't so close, but you deserve to know."

"Are you sure?" She asked me quietly.

I nodded, not saying anything and trying to gather my thoughts.

"My parents got married when they were eighteen," I started. "They had me twelve years later when they were both thirty. Mother was already an established silicate and my dad was already an established lawyer. He was, and I quote, 'about two steps away from making partner by the time that I was two', which apparently was really good considering that he had not been with the firm for that long. So, dad's main focus was to gain partnership, it was what he had wanted since he was a kid: to be some big successful lawyer," I rolled my eyes. "and eventually, by the time that I was five, he got just that. He made partner. I remember that I always used to call him a 'superhero' because to me, he was. He was the big good guy that way putting all of the bad guys in jail. I didn't really mind that dad was never home, because he was making the world a better place for me and mother, he was taking care of us. But then by the time that I was nine, I realized that that wasn't what was actually happening. Dad wasn't some superhero, he was just a regular guys that liked work more than me. And that just sucked because I'm his son, ya' know, my dad was meant to want to spend time with me. I stopped calling him 'superhero' and he never seemed to mind. Mum said that he did though, she said that he was confused and didn't understand what he had done wrong. But dad never said anything to me about being upset, so I never called dad superhero again. Then, dad started to work more and more, was always home later than he said that he would and started working more and more on the weekends. Eventually, we stopped talking altogether, whenever we did we were awkward and argued."

I looked up at Bella, and she looked sad. I did not want to see her sad, or her sympathy, so I looked back up at the ceiling and kept on talking.

"We argued about everything, I think that we even stopped talking for a week because we had an argument about whether it was quicker to walk to the park on way or the other. They were such stupid arguments, but at the time, even if I knew that they were dumb, I was so angry that I couldn't talk to the guy, and he certainly did not put forth any effort.

He didn't like who I was. Everything that I liked, what I wanted to do after school, my few friends, he could find problems with everything. He was angry that I did not have more friends and that I did not have a girlfriend, but I think that he would have liked you." I grinned.

I laughed when I heard her scoff. "Honestly, he did in my dream anyways." I mused.

"Your dream?"

"Long story, later."

"Alright….."

"Anyway, I was about fifteen and a half when he died. He had been working on a case. One of the main crime families in Chicago had been caught, and dad was the main lawyer of the prosecution. Sounds cliché, I know, lawyer gets knocked off by mob or crime family or whatever. Apparently, they had warned dad before that night, told him to back off and leave the case alone or to plant false evidence or something that will help to prove them not guilty. But dad would not, dad was determined to put them away. They had been working for years but had never gotten any jail time for anything big, just a few small robberies or assault cases. He was determined that they would go away for the murders that they were accused of.

I think that he knew that something was going to happen though." I whispered. "He started to come home sooner, he absolutely pampered mother that last week, and he tried to make emends with me. He kept on trying to talk to me and go somewhere with me, I remember that he was trying to convince me to go to a baseball game with him the morning that it happened and I asked him why. He said that 'he wanted to get to know his son'. He told mother that he was going to get food that night so that she didn't have to cook. We had this favorite restaurant. It was this little take away joint and that was in the backstreets, but there was a car park on the main road. If you parked there and walked through the alleyway you could get to the restaurant quicker. They knew that he was going to be there – I have no idea how, but they did. They shot dad, they didn't beat him up or take his wallet, they just shot my dad and then ran. The cops told us everything that they could, I think that they knew him."

We were quiet for a few moments, and I think that she knew that I needed that. "I went to the alleyway, after they were starting to let people through again. There was blood that they could not get off on the walls and the dumpster. The whole scene was absolutely disgusting." I shuddered. She moved from her sitting position and lay next to me, putting her leg over mine and her arm over my chest.

"Mother was a mess. She didn't do anything for weeks. She wouldn't eat or anything, she just laid in the bed and wouldn't let me in for the first week, she had locked the door. Eventually I broke down the door so that I could get her some food. I got her to have two showers a week for three weeks and then I got sick of everything. Of bringing her the food that she would never eat and trying to clean and getting her screaming at me for touching dad's stuff.

I threw open the drapes, put her in the bathroom by herself with some clothes and told her to wake the fuck up. We went grocery shopping and eventually, she got better. She's still not completely happy though, she only just stopped crying whenever Van Morrison comes on but she still makes taco's and but the beer that he loved." I sighed. "I do not know how to help her."

"You have done enough, she never would have gotten this far without you." Bella whispered, her little hand running through my hair. "And I am so sorry that you had to go through all of that." I shrugged.

Suddenly I was exhausted. I could feel my eyes dropping.

"What was that that you said about a dream?"

"What dream?"

"You said before that you had a dream where your dad liked me. What did you mean?"

"Oh, that dream that I had last night when I went all strange." I muttered, turning my face into her hair.

"I was dreaming about the house and the dad was there and then I remembered all of this other stuff and then the two of us were in the meadow and we were talking, or dad was talking really, but he said that he liked you and that I did a good job."

Bella hummed. "Let's get you to bed." She said. I helped her move the blankets without getting off of the bed but as she was about to get on top of the blankets, as she sometimes did depending on how cold the night was, I stopped her, pulling the blankets so that she could get in with me.

"Stay with me." I muttered.

"Always." She kissed my cheek.

I drifted off to sleep with my arms round her torso and her leg, like before, over mine and her arms over my torso, her head resting on my heart.


	22. Chapter 22 Caught

So I think that it had been ages since I last updates, I honestly can not remember. Anyways, this really is just a filler, again, sorry. But the next chapter will be more interesting.

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When I awoke, I could feel Bella still as stone and I wondered what was wrong. I wondered if she had had a bad dream but then remembered that she did not sleep. Just awake me wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, if you get what I mean.

"Bella, what's wrong?" I muttered groggily. I opened my eyes to see her staring in shock at the door on the other side of the room. Still not catching on, I turned my head so that my eyes could follow hers.

I immediately and completely understood why she was so shocked.

My mother, still dressed in her pajamas with her hair all frizzy around her pale face, was standing in my door way with a look of surprised shock on her face, her emerald green eyes widened with recognition and what seemed to be acceptance.

Oh _shit._

Acceptance. My mind knew immediately what she was accepting. Of course, she had jumped to conclusions. Bella and I 'sleeping' in the same bed without my mother knowing that she was here. Me going to bed straight away even though I almost never got to sleep before twelve.

Add to that the fact that Bella was still wearing the midnight blue dress from yesterday. The one that had really thin straps that right now her hair was covering, so it could quite easily look like she was not wearing anything. And I slept without a shirt on.

She knew that we loved each other, and she saw the way that I kissed her, the way that I looked at her.

Of course my mother would think that we were having sex. She wasn't an idiot. She knew that almost nobody waited for marriage to have sex these days, even though she knew that that was something that I had always wanted.

But oh shit, she thought that we were having sex!

_Have fun explaining your way out of this one._

I could easily show her that we were dressed, but proving that we hadn't had sex would be harder. I think that she would trust me though, but then again, by letting Bella in without her knowing I had more than likely broken the trust that she had always put in me.

Explaining exactly how the fuck Bella got over here would be another thing completely.

She was turning to leave, and I still had not said anything.

"Mum, it's not – "

"We'll talk about this tonight." She gave me a stern look as she closed the door. My head moving slowly, I looked at Bella, who met my wide eyes with equally wide ones.

"Should I….?" I let my question trail off, nodding towards the door.

"Yes! Go!" She said, sitting bolt right up, and pulling on my arm to get me to sit up quicker then pushing me off of the bed. "Oh she's going to be so angry!" She said, her hands covering her mouth, her eyes still wide. "She's going to completely hate me now!" She did a soft scream/squeal thing into her hands and rubbed them over her face.

"She's not going to hate you." I said, grabbing her hands and pulling them off of her face. She was biting on her bottom lip and I kissed them, trying to get her to stop. "One day, you're going to chew that off." I joked.

"Go!" She pointed towards the door, obviously angry that I seemed so calm about this. Inside, I was screaming.

I had promised my mother, am myself, that I was going to treat Bella with the respect that she deserved. I was trying, and I thought that I was doing alright. But my mother thought that the two of us had been sleeping together.

Which, in mother terms, meant that I had been treating my girl like shit.

And possibly that Bella was easy.

I really didn't want mother to think either of those things.

Standing in the hallway, I couldn't hear any noise from anywhere in the house but assumed that she was in her bedroom. The kitchen had crappy flooring and you could hear whenever somebody was there. Her bedroom was the only logical solution. I made my way to her room, trying to come up with possible excuses.

I knocked on her door lightly. "Mum?" I said softly. The silence in the house was daunting, seeming to press in on me. "Can I come in?" She didn't answer but I pushed the door open slowly, still thinking that she was in there. And so she was, sitting on the bed staring at nothing. Her eyes slowly came up to meet mine, still shocked, but now calculating.

"You promised that you would treat her well." She sounded passionate, but she spoke softly, as if she too were intimidated by the silence, unwilling to break it.

"I did! I am!" I exclaimed, louder then her, moving closer into the room.

"Not from what I just saw!" She stood up now, and even though I was a good foot taller than her she could still intimidate me. But not this time, not when I had done nothing wrong. Maybe my inner teenage was rising up and asking 'why should I be punished when I had treated Bella with nothing but respect?'

"You jumped to conclusions!"

"You two were in bed, in my house, when I did not know that she was here and neither of you had any clothes on!"

"Yes we did! I never sleep with a shirt on," I gestured to my still bare chest but my pants. "just my pajama pants, and Bella was still wearing the dress from yesterday. The straps are thin and her hair was covering them. We are not sleeping together, we are just, well, _sleeping_ together. As in actual sleeping. We are not doing anything else. You know me better than that, shit, you _raised _me better than that."

She looked at me skeptically, as if part of her believed me, but the other part didn't.

"Look, I know that I can't prove that, and I know that I've broken your trust, but you've gotta believe me. I am still the same boy, I still don't believe in sex before marriage, and neither does Bella. Esme and Carlisle are both old fashioned and they raised her like you raised me."

Mother raised and eyebrow again but I could tell that I was winning her over. "Then what is she doing here?"

"Sleeping." I shrugged, trying to seem casual.

"She has her own bed, at her own house."

"But we prefer to sleep together. We both get a better nights sleep when we do, and we don't do anything that we should not be doing."

"What do you mean that you both get a better nights sleep? What was wrong with the way that you sleep?"

This was the tricky part, the part that I felt like shit about because I hated having to lie to my mother.

"You know that it used to take me hours to get to sleep. That I would go to bed and just lay there for ages. Whenever I am with Bella I can get to sleep within the hour." At least that part was true.

"And Bella?"

I sighed. "That's for her to tell you and not me."

"Why?"

"Because it's her business." I urged. "I can't tell you anything that she might not want other people to know."

My mother was instantly alarmed, and I internally groaned. I had brought out her inner social worker.

"Is there something wrong with her? Does she have a condition?" Her voice went from concerned mother to politely detached yet still caring social worker. That voice pissed me off.

As did the way that she phrased the question. 'Is there something wrong with her?' As if having a sleeping problem meant that there was something wrong with her. And who cares if there was actually something wrong with her? Why does that matter?

"No, there's nothing wrong with her." I said, my voice tight and no doubt showing some of m anger.

"I don't mean that in a bad way Edward, I simply meant does she have some sort of sleeping disorder?" She still managed to make her statement a question.

"She has bad dreams." I said slowly, knowing that this was risky, and a real asshole move to both Bella and Elizabeth, but this was the only thing that I could think of that would get my mother to stop questioning this, and stop questioning about Bella's pre-Cullen past. "But she doesn't have as many bad dreams when she is with me."

"Do you know why?"

"I feel safer." Came a quiet voice form the doorway. Bella was standing there, her hair wavy and her dress crinkled but still looking beautiful on her

My mother quickly appraised the state of Bella's dress. "Safer form what?" She eventually asked.

"Everything." Bella said shrugging and giving a weak laugh. "My parents, my birth parents that is, they were pretty shitty people." She sighed, her eyes flickering over to me. I quickly made my way to her, wrapping my arms around her because I knew that talking about this would be hard for her. That, and I knew that she hated to lie.

"They did stuff to me that I would rather not talk about, if that's alright with you, but I used to get pretty bad nightmares. I thought that they would go away after Esme and Carlisle adopted me but they didn't. Before Edward they were so bad that I almost never slept. Being with him helps, I almost never get bad dreams and I'm finally getting a solid amount every night. I am sorry that we went behind your back though, we just didn't think that anybody would understand."

"This isn't the first time that this has happened?" Mother was getting angry again.

"No." We both shook our heads.

"Do you ever go to Bella's house?" Mother asked me.

"No." I answered her. "It's easier for Bella to come here. I can't go out the window and I would have to go past your bedroom to leave. Plus, you would notice if I was missing. There are so many more people at Bella's house that even if she is home late in the mornings Esme and Carlisle are distracted by the others. Alice and Jasper know so they can distract them if necessary."

Mother sighed heavily the straightened up. "I need to get ready for work. Edward, you will be here when I get home, in fact, you're grounded for this week." My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to protest but then though better. How would she know if I left anyway? "And I will get Mrs. Mart form across the street to make sure that your car is still here. We will be talking about this later tonight." She nodded her head and Bella and I left the room and made our way back to mine.

"Well that sucks." I said as I closed the door. She plopped onto the bed looked shocked still. I walked over and starched out on the bed, barely feeling the bed move as she went to lay next to me.

"How didn't I hear her?" Bella said, her voice confused.

I hadn't even thought of that. How _hadn't_ Bella heard her.

"I mean," She continued. "I knew that I was distracted, but surely not that distracted." She sighed. "But why today of all days does she check! I mean, she never usually does, not even on school days!"

"Maybe she heard something, or needed to tell me something." I suggested, trying to be helpful.

"Probably needed to tell you something, I did not hear anything form you – mind you, I did not hear anything from her either…." She grumbled.

"It's not your fault," I sighed. "You were distracted, and I am the one that asks you to stay every night." I said, then paused. "What _did_ have you so distracted?" I asked curiously. What could distract a vampire so much that they did not know what was going on in their surroundings?

"Vampire can relax themselves into a state of….well, not unconsciousness, but the closest thing that we can get to sleep. Usually, only those of us that are really calm by nature, like Jasper and Carlisle, or really old can do it. Or those of us that are mated. Being with our mates calms us enough. I was never able to get to that state until after I met you…." She trailed off. Meanwhile, I was just happy that I could relax her, though it seemed to be the only thing that I actually could do to help her.

"Sorry I got you grounded." She looked up at me.

"It's all good, besides, as long as we don't take the car and leave out the back then how will she ever know?"

Bella's eyes lit up with a mischievous gleam, but when she spoke she tried to be stern. "You are a horrible influence, you know that right?"

"You're older, aren't you the influencer and I'm the influence?"

"Not this time." She shrugged.

No matter what she said, I still knew that she would help me leave.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

When mum got home that night, she was still angry. I didn't really get why, I mean, she never said that Bella couldn't sty the night.

Alright, so that was bullshit, and I knew it. I knew that I had done the wrong thing, but I was a teenager and I was allowed to think that my grounding was unfair and unreasonable.

I had made Bella go to the Cullen house, telling her that she didn't need to be here for this conversation. She, of course, argued, saying that the whole situation was her fault so she should be here too. Also, she was under the impression that my mother now thought her to be some sort of hussy and wanted to correct that misassumption. She finally relented after I assured her that my mother didn't think that she was a hussy, with the promise of returning that night.

Being the good son that I was, and being a kiss ass, I had dinner on the stove when mum came through the door. I had made her favorite in the hopes of softening her up, but did not know how well that was going to work.

We ate in relative silence, and it was only when I was starting to stack the plates that she said anything.

"Why didn't you just ask me?"

"Because you would have said no."

She sighed. "Probably, but eventually I would have agreed, given that a few rules were in place."

"You would have?"

She sighed again. "Yes, but I do not think that each others reliance on each other to sleep is healthy, the two of you need to be able to cope on your own." Part of me wanted to remind her that she still had trouble sleeping without dad, but that would be a really ass-ish move. "Do you plan on, for lack of better words, continuing to sleep together?" She frowned, still not looking at me.

"Will you let me?"

"Would you stop if I told you too?" She came back.

I pursed my lips. "You know, I know about the kid of stuff that you and dad used to do behind your parent's back and this really isn't that bad, practically compared too – "

"So I can take that as a yes." She sighed. I did not say anything. "I want to know the days that she comes over, and there will be none of these, gatherings, whilst you are grounded, and you will not be staying in the same room as each other when we go to Chicago."

"It would be so much easier if we could." I said, whilst my inner monologue told me to shut the fuck up and be happy that I was not in more trouble.

"Do I have to come and sleep in one of your rooms?"

"No ma'am, we will behave." I said respectfully.

"Good, no go to your room, I can do the dishes." I nodded and made my way to the stairs. "And you are still grounded!"

I think that she knew as well as I did how difficult that that would be to enforce.

When I got up to my bedroom, Bella was already there. She didn't look as put out as before. "She would actually continue to let me stay the night." What she said sounded neither like a statement or a question, but rather a mixture of the two. "She doesn't hate me!" Bella giggled, jumping up off of the bed to throw her arms round my neck. I hugged her back, sighing, trying to sound irritated but there was too much amusement in the sound.

"I _told_ you that she would not hate you, even if we were, in fact, sleeping together, I doubt that she would – She would just be super pissed at me."

"And I can still go to Chicago!" Bella acted as though she had not heard me, but I was used to that by now, she had a one track mind sometimes.

"So what are we going to do tomorrow?" I asked her as we lay on the bed.

"What is there to do, we are stuck here."

"Why?"

"Grounded, remember?" She looked at me pointedly.

"Meh," She scowled at me. "I was kinda hoping to talk to Emmett, they leave the day after tomorrow and I was wondering if he would tell me his story."

"I don't know if we should push our luck – "

Just then Bella's phone went off in her pocket.

_Emmett says yes,_ the message read,_ and I can keep a look out for Elizabeth. Love Alice xo._

I grinned, sometimes it was just so convenient to have a physic friend.


	23. Chapter 23 Esme and Emmett

_So, shoot me now._

_I have a bunch of excuses, but I doubt that you really want to hear them. The good news is that school holidays are on now and my boyfriend is on holiday (which, just fyi, sucks balls), so the only things to distract me are sleep, friends and work (if I get the job that I think that I got, wish me luck)._

_I would just like to point out that I live in Australia, on the other side of the world from America, and have absolutely no idea about American geography. I did look up some stuff to make this chapter a bit more 'true', but still, Google can only do so much. _

_Please keep reviewing, enjoy._

_On, and P.S. To ttyyyyytt, thankyou for the message and I am sorry that I have not replied sooner, but whenever I try to, fan fiction says that the 'user has disabled the pm function', and I can't. And then I got lazy and busy and couldn't post this….._

It's safe to say that Mrs. Mart, the elderly woman across the street, would not be able to tell that I had left the house. I gotta say though, the fact that my mother had hired her to constantly look through her window to see if I was there was a little odd, I mean, she was practically saying 'hey old lady that I barely know, please, stalk my son for me for 'sleeping' with his girlfriend'.

And on that note, I was eighteen, an adult, so what if I had Bella in my room, I should be able to.

Yeah, I was still pissy about being grounded, especially after Bella had brought to my attention that I was an adult.

But anyway, Bella and I had successfully left the house via the back door and were currently running through the forest ( or she was. I was clinging on for dear life. ) to the Cullen mansion. I was eager to talk to Emmett, and hoped that I might be able to sneak Esme in as well. I wanted to have this whole vampire change thing definite by the time that school started.

When we got to the mansion, Emmett greeted us at the door, gesturing that we should take a seat in the living room.

If I ever had any doubt that Emmett was the most relaxed of the Cullen's this was the setting that would reassure me. Whilst all the others had had an air of sadness or longing in their voices whenever they spoke about their human lives, Emmett seemed perfectly fine, if not bored as he started to tell me the story, diving his attention between me and the television, where for some reason he was watching a cooking show on the food network.

"I was born in Tennessee, in a little town on the Smokey Mountain. I was the middle child," Emmett grinned. Weren't the middle children meant to be the reserved and quiet ones? "I had a little brother and an older sister, Joseph and Angelina. My parents were John and Mary McCarty. The majority of my human life that I can remember was during the great depression, so making a living wasn't easy, and the fact that we lived in a tiny town didn't exactly help that." Emmett's brow furrowed.

"I know that my mother stayed at home, she didn't work, but my dad did, he was a lumberjack I think, and my sister got work in town as a seamstress when she turned fifteen, she was still working there at the time of my change. I remember that I had gotten a job with my dad at the same age. There was no real point going to school, so I went and worked instead. Joseph, who was three years younger than me, got a job with dad at fifteen too."

Emmett looked at the TV and sighed again, trying to remember I thought.

"We liked to go hunting, me, my dad and my brother that is. Sometimes, we would go with some of the other people that lived near by. We got free food this way, and something exciting to do as well. My mother was always terrified that we were going to get hurt on one of the hinting trips, but we always told her that we stayed together and that we were careful. And we always were.

The last time that I went, only my brother and dad were with me. I was twenty one at the time and had not really wanted to go. I had to cancel a date with my girlfriend." Emmett snorted. I rose an eyebrow. I had never thought about Emmett being with anybody else then with Rosalie, and was immediately glad that she was not here at the moment, but was shopping in Port Angeles with Alice. I wondered if she knew about Emmett's pre-material relations.

"Yer, I know, strange to think of me with anybody else but Rosalie, but at the time, I had not met her, and my mother wanted lots of grandbabies," Emmett laughed. "she wanted me to be married within the next ten years. She got her wish, but not quite as she expected. Eighty years later and sadly, still no grandbabies.

We had split up for some reason, that was not something that we usually did, and I was ecstatic when I found a little baby bear. I had never seen one before and stupidly went closer for a better look. I did not see the mother until I had gotten to close, and she had seen me to. She gave this giant roar, an I remember thinking that dad would come to help me, because there was no way that I would be able to take care of the bear, or myself, by myself. But if dad did come, I do not know. The bear started to run at me, and do you have any idea how fast hose things can go? And I panicked, I could barely move, let alone set up the gun. Things become a bit foggy after that, but I remember that something cold was wrapped round me, and then when I opened my eyes, an angel was staring at me.

"Please," She had told me. "Please just hang on." And from that moment onwards she had me hooked. I feel in love with Rosalie then, and I remember thinking that I could be alright with dying, because this angel was going to take me up to Heaven where we could spend Eternity Together." Emmett grinned. "I got some of it right.

After Carlisle bit me, I remember thinking that I had been sent to hell." Emmett frowned, a faraway look in his topaz eyes. "But I was confused when the Angel stayed with me, I did not under stand why she was still there. I thought that maybe I was being punished, but was still going to go to Heaven, and the Angel was here to remind me that everything would be alright."

Bella sighed. "And then you woke up." Emmett's booming laughter could surely be heard in the next town over.

"I was a bit of a hand full wasn't I?" Emmett, seeing my confused face, elaborated. "When I woke up, I was asking if I could see my grandmother, and they were all pretty confused by that before Carlisle asked if she was dead. I told them that she was, and he told me that I was, to some standard, still alive."

"You kept a surprisingly open mind." Bella mused thoughtfully. "Took us ages to convince Esme."

"I wasn't overly freaked out about the whole vampire thing, I was more interested in the perks, plus I was still shocked at the sight of Rosie. If she was there, how bad could being a vampire be?"

Very, I thought.

"They explained about the thirst, which was sooo bad, and took me hunting. I made such a mess, my shirt was in tatters and I had plowed over a bunch of trees and killed I don't even know how many animals. Took over fur hours to fill me.

When we got to the house, they all briefly told me their stories and went over the 'need to know' for being a vampire."

"We were all so unsettled about how well you were taking everything." Bella chimed in.

"Because I am so much bigger, I have to drink more to fill me whenever I hunt, and my body uses up the blood quicker. Most newborns hunt every second day, but I was drinking double of what most other newborns do and I had to go every day, sometimes more than once."

Emmett's eyes hardened, started to show a sadness that I had never seen there before.

"My control was, and still is, one of the worst in the family. The only person that has a harder time than me is Jazz, and that's just because my poor brother has to feel everybody else's thirst. About eight months in we went on a hunt, just me and Rosalie. We, we came across the scent of a human when we were sitting by the waterfall. I had never smelt anything so good before.

Without even thinking about what I was doing I started to run towards the scent, and at that time I was still faster than Rosalie. By the time that she got to me, the guy and the kid were dead." Emmett's voice broke on the last word.

I sat stunned, my eyes wide and my back straightened up. I had never thought about Emmett killing anybody, he was just too nice. Killing one person must have been bad enough, but killing two, and a child, that must have killed him.

"She was only young too, probably about eight. And you know what's worse?" Emmett turned his eyes towards me, and I almost shuddered at the tortured look in them.

"I killed her dad first. I drained the guy before I turned on her. She saw absolutely everything that I did, she had to see his snapped neck, his open dead eyes as I drank the blood from his neck. Then I killed her." Emmett started to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself I assumed. I did not know how to make things better, how to calm him. Hesitantly, I put my hand on his should and squeezed. He looked at me and smiled, though I could tell that the memory was still going to be on his mind for a while. "I was absolutely distraught. I locked myself in my bedroom for about a week, and by that stage the thirst was horrible and I could not help myself when they took me to the forest. After that I absolutely refused to go anywhere near the humans. After another three years I finally did though, and it took another after that until I could be near them for a whole day, and another decade until I became comfortable to do so, where I could go for a whole day without having to hold my breath.

And then, after about another ten years, we got the Pixie and the Soldier." Emmett grinned. "We had to move town after about three months, and in the new town I found my singer." I rose an eyebrow at this, knowing that that was what I was to Bella, and wondering how the others had dealt with their singers. "We were all walking along the dirt road to get to the house. At this part of the town, there were farms and everything was pretty secluded. I had run in front of the rest of them by about ten kilometers, to get away from Jasper because I had just made a rather, well, out of place joke about Alice. There was a woman who was hanging out sheets, and then the wind blew, blowing her scent to me, and honestly, I have absolutely no idea what happened for a time after that. I just remember Rosalie with her arms around my shoulders and Carlisle in front of me, calling my name. When I came into focus, I looked at my hands and they were covered in blood, and in front of me was the woman, her eyes still open, her neck practically torn off. Before I could make sense of what I had done, I could hear Jasper growling behind me.

That was when we realized that Jasper could feel everyone else's thirst as well as our other emotions.

I know that you probably think that this life is great, that we get looks and our mates and we get to spend so much more time with them then the humans do with their mates, usually. You probably think that the thirst is the worst part, and maybe you are right. But there is also the guilt, and the longing for your family, to be a part of society again. I missed my family so much, until the first incident I was still arguing with them, telling them that I should be able to see my family again.

This is not all easy Edward," Emmett was more serious than I had ever seen him. "a decision like this should not be taken lightly, there is no going back. But you have good control, and a good support team." Emmett smiled mischievously, his topaz eyes lighting up. "When Bella finally gets her head out of her ass, you should do just fine kid." Emmett ruffled my hair, before there was a crack, Emmett was sprawled on the floor laughing and Bella was slowly bring her hand back to her side, not looking at either of us.

Soon after, Emmett, looking much happier than he had been before, went upstairs to pack a suitcase for the trip, as they were leaving the next day.

Bella and I spent the rest of the day being more lazy than either of us usually allowed, laying on the couch and watching movies, whilst trying to decided what we were going to do in Chicago when we were there, including the Art Institute Of Chicago and The Lincoln Park Zoo, which I thought was a little bit ironic.

We were starting to think about leaving when an unusually timid looking Esme came into the room. I got the feeling that she needed to say something to us, and had had to for quite a while, but had only gotten the resolve to do so now that we were about to go.

"Hey Esme." I said, trying to act like her acting like this was normal, tying to pretend that nothing was odd.

"Hello." Her normally sift voice was quieter than ever, and as she shuffled into the room with her head down and her hands clasped in front of her, she looked small, meek and fragile, which was preposterous. I looked over to Bella, trying to gauge her reaction, and caught a spark of shock and recognition in her topaz eyes.

"Are-are you alright Esme?" I asked her, not liking seeing her so sad.

"Oh yes dear," She said quickly, hastily trying to reassure me. "I just wanted to know if I could talk to you about…me." Me eyes widened. Did she mean what I think that she meant? Either way, I nodded.

She let out a breath and walked over to me, taking the seat that Emmett had occupied hours ago for a similar conversation.

"I, I don't know, how much do you know about my human life?" She asked me timidly.

"I knew that you were human, and that you had a baby, and that the crib is upstairs." I supplied, not missing the way that she flinched. She nodded slowly.

"I was born in Ohio, in 1894." She sighed. "I had two older sisters, Grace was the oldest and Sarah was the middle child. We owned a small farm and my father would sell the produce in town, or sometimes ship the goods away. Our parents got Grace married when she was twenty to another farmer, like our parents were, and Sarah married by choice when she was eighteen. When she got married, my mother went into a frenzy trying to get me a husband, or at least to get people interested in me. I was sixteen." Alright, so I know that the times were different and that I was considering getting married at eighteen, but sixteen seems way too young. "She got me to wear a corset, which was something that I had been fighting against since I was fourteen. The problem was that I did not realize how much the corset would limit the use of my legs.

As I said, my parents were farmers. We all lived there until my sisters got married, then they went to live with their partners. I used to like to walk in the fields around sunset then climb up the trees and draw, if I got the chance. The day that mother got me to wear the corset, I finished my chores early and got the chance to go walking. I tried to climb, but when I had to life my leg up high to get it over the branch, the corset restricted the movement. I became off balanced and fell from the tree. I had almost been at the top. I could feel my leg cracking and it hurt so much, but no matter how much I yelled, my parents did not find me until a few hours later.

I was taken to the hospital, naturally after my mother had helped to clean me up a bit, a was treated by none other than Carlisle." For the first time she smiled a wide, genuine smile. It was obvious that even then she would have loved him. "I don't remember much of that night, the pain made me woozy and they had given me medication, but I remember waking up the next night, and when I looked over to the bedside table he was there. He asked me how I was, and explained to me everything that happened. They had had to reset my bones. I was there for a month, and the whole time, Carlisle was the one that took care of me, he would get nervous anybody else tried, or whenever he had to go for the day.

I always made sure to sleep in the day because Carlisle only worked in the nights. At first, I had been merely infatuated with him, but by the time that I was to leave I knew that I was in love. I loved the way that he treated me, he would hold my hand whenever my leg really hurt and he would sooth me whenever my parents had come to visit me. My mother was critical that I still needed to be at the hospital. She thought that I should be finding a husband not sitting in the hospital reading. Carlisle would listen to me about what I wanted to do with my life and tried to support me. Whilst I wanted to find a husband and have a big family, I wanted to be more than just some woman that relied on her husband for everything and spent the day cleaning the house and waiting for the others to come back. I wanted to help be, maybe by being a teacher of some sort. These were just some of the reasons why I loved him.

The only problem that as I was leaving, Carlisle was too. He came to me on my last night at the hospital, and I had plucked up the courage to ask if I could come back to visit him, which was outrageous for a woman to do in those days, but he beat me to talking. He told me that he had to leave Ohio, that there had been some sort of family emergency. That alone was odd as he had told me that he did not have any close family.

Without Carlisle's presence in my life I was more miserable than ever. I missed him and could not tell anybody, they would laugh at me and call me a foolish girl for thinking that my infatuation with the hansom doctor was love, or that a young girl like me had a chance.

A year later, my parents arranged for me to get married to a man named Charles Evanston." I heard a faint snarl and in a flash Carlisle was standing in front of me, still in a doctors coat and with briefcase in hand. His eyes were wide with fury and black. Carlisle was fucking angry. "It's alright darling, we were just talking about me as a human."

"But why about – "

"Because he was a part of my human life. And part of the reason why…." She rose an eyebrow. Carlisle sighs and sat next to her. "You get angry every time that you hear this Carlisle, why stay?" Carlisle did not answer but sat silently next to his wife with his hand in hers, reminding me shockingly of Bella. Esme sighed and rolled her eyes, but I could see a glimmer of amusement in her eyes and the touch of a smile on her lips.

"Anyway, Charles came from a well respected family in the community, and I remember how shocked and proud my parents were that somebody like him would agree to be with me." Carlisle snorted at this. "Honestly, I was too. He was a fair few years old then me, about five I think, and at first he seemed to be what every young woman would have hoped for in a husband. Nice, charming, polite and respectful. Plus with enough inheritance to support the two of us and a family, plus a good job. But even then I knew that I could never be truly happy with Charles. I often found myself comparing him to Carlisle," Here, Carlisle grinned smugly. I wasn't used to seeing this part of Carlisle, and wondered what the fuck this Charles guy could have done tot make the almost always calm Carlisle act like this.

We were married shortly after we became acquainted with each other. Of course we had heard of each other, or exchanged a few words out of politeness at a social gathering, but nothing that indicated a friendship or anything more than that.

At first, Charles was exactly as I had thought, but after about two months he…." Esme frowned and seemed to be struggling to find the right word. I got the feeling that she was trying to shield me from what had actually happened, but still wanted to give me the general idea. I wasn't sure that I wanted to know either way. "changed." She finally settled on. "Charles' true temper became apparent, and he developed a rather strong hand."

My eyes widened, my jaw clenched and my hand bunched the soft material of the sofa in a fist. Carlisle's reaction was similar to mine, Bella simply winced whilst Esme had no outwardly reaction.

"I won't go into any details, but you can imagine enough. Very few people found out what was actually happening, though I assume that other people would have had a suspicion."

"Then why didn't they help you?" I exclaimed outraged and unable to stop myself.

All the same, Esme smiled patiently. "Things were different back then. Even if somebody didn't agree with what was going on, what happened between a man and wife was not their business. The only people that actually knew were my parents and Sarah, but they told me that I must be doing something wrong to be making my husband so angry. They told me to be a better wife and then everything would be alright."

Carlisle growled. I imagined that I would have to had I of had the ability.

"When Charles was called to serve in the First World War, I was still upset, but nowhere near that of the other wives. I acted well though, I pretended to weep when I kissed him goodbye and exchanged encouraging words with the other wives but when I got home the day that they left I remember sweeping through the house and singing and baking pies, rejoicing in the fact that I would actually be able to eat them, because Charles never let me.

The time that my husband was gone were the happiest days of my married for me. I was free. But then, one day I was hanging out the washing and talking to one of the neighbors, and the back door burst open. Charles was back. I knew what was to come, so I quickly said goodbye to the neighbor telling her that I had missed my husband, and she never questioned me.

Charles was horrible. All that time at war when he was able to fulfill his bloodlust, forgive the irony, made him all the more thirsty. Except now there was no one else to hurt or to kill, just me.

Two months later, I found that I was pregnant."

I had already known that Esme had had a child, thanks to her new children, but I still found the image of her with a baby with a different man beside her, a man that was not Carlisle, who was clearly her soul mate, difficult to comprehend. The only difference now was that whenever I had imagined such a situation the other man had been looking at wife and child with love and adoration filling his not-gold eyes. Now, after hearing the beginning of her story, I somehow doubted that Charles ever looked at Esme such a way.

"I had always wanted a child, I wanted a big family with a loving husband that would kiss me when he came home. I knew that that was not what I would be getting with Charles. That night, after he had gone to bed, I grabbed everything that I could fit into a suitcase and some food, and I left.

I refused to let a baby be hurt by my husband, and I refused to risk the babies life with what Charles did to me.

I caught the train to West Virginia, then made my way to Arlington. I got a job at a diner and was reasonably happy, all things considering. I was still edgy and somewhat paranoid about Charles.

The town that I was staying in was tiny, ad everybody knew everybody. I was in my forth month of pregnancy and had been in the town for just over two months. There were two men that worked in the local post office, and the older man, a Mr. Johnston if I remember correctly, came into the diner every morning before he started his shift. One morning, when it was almost six am, after I served him he told me that a man had come looking for me.

"I was just cleaning up last night and the fellow came into the store, asking if I knew a Mrs. Evanston." Mr. Johnston had said.

"And I told the guy no, and he said 'What about an Esme then? An Esme Platt?'. And I told him yes, that you were living here. I asked the fellow how he knew you, and he said that he knew you from when you lived before, and I asked if you were a friend of her husbands from the war, because I remember you telling me how your husband had passed when he was fighting, bless his soul.

Then the man started to look a bit angry, and asked me where you were. I told him, I said, that I could not tell him your address, but that you worked here, usually in the morning, and that your shift usually finished about two.

'E said that he was going to stop by to see you after work."

By this stage I thought that I knew who he was talking about, it wouldn't be my dad, he would be to ashamed of what I had done to bother looking for me, so Charles was the only other option. He might not have loved me, but to him, I was his property, and I had no right to leave him. I imagine that there was talk about the town about what had happened and why I had suddenly disappeared, and Charles was probably ashamed, embarrassed and angry.

I asked Mr. Johnston the mans name, and he said Charles. I quickly apologized to the other workers and went back to the house that I had been renting. The owner lived next door so I apologized to her to and gave her the rent that I was owing her, then I caught the next train that I could get onto.

It took me to a little town named Ashland." Here, Esme shared a fond smile with Carlisle, who, despite his scowl, returned it. "I remained there for the rest of my pregnancy. I started to work at the local school. I was finally happy. When I went into labor, everything went perfectly fine. I gave birth on my due date, there were no extra complications for me or the baby and everything seemed to be going great. I was resting and waiting for the nurse to bring me the baby so that I could nurse him, but when she came back, she did not have my baby. She told me that my little boy had developed an infection in his lungs, and that the doctors were trying to fix him. They said that he was stable but that they did not want to try to move him. She said that I would be able to visit him the next day.

I was worried sick, of course, but she had assured me that my baby would be fine.

When I went to visit him the next day, he seemed fine. They let me stay with him but after a few hours, he started to…" Her voice chocked off and her hand flew up to her mouth, eyes clenching shut.

"Esme," Carlisle whispered, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and kissing. She took few moments to collect herself, then kept on talking.

"You don't have to – " I started.

"No, no, it's fine." She nodded determinedly. "So, he started to turn blue. I started screaming for the doctors to come and get him, to help the two of us, and they did but they couldn't save him. He was only a day old, and he died.

I-I couldn't handle the grief. I spent a few days willowing around the small house that I had rented, most of the time I was in the babies room.

After a few days, I decided that there was no point bothering living anymore. I had no family, very limited friends, my husband was abusive and my sweet little baby was dead. I decided that I was going to join him."

I stiffened at this. I already knew that something had happened to her to force her into this life, something that had threatened her life, but I had never assumed that she had tried to take her own life.

"I went to one of the cliffs and jumped off. I remember being so happy as I was falling, I finally felt free. Somebody found me a few hours later and called the hospital, but I was taken straight to the morgue. Luckily, Carlisle was working there that night. He heard the heartbeat and recognized who I was. He took me back to their house and changed me.

Waking up was….frightening….to say the least. I had been so desperate to die, but I was religious and knew that suicide was a sin, the pain of the transformation had made me think that I was getting my punishment for killing myself. When I woke up to see Carlisle, I thought that he was an angel, I thought that I had been forgiven and that I was in Heaven.

When Carlisle was explaining everything it took so long to convince me otherwise. When they took me hunting, everything started to crash on me and I was absolutely terrified. I locked myself in once of the rooms and cried for hours that I had actually killed something. The way that you lose yourself in the hunt is so scary at first. The first year is the hardest, for me anyway. The cross from human to vampire changes not just your body but also your mind. You think differently and that makes it confusing because you still like most of the same things. I don't know about the others, because they were all single and didn't have any romantic interests when they changed, but I loved to spend time with Carlisle, and I could tell that my feelings for him were developing and becoming even stronger than they were when I was a human.

Being around him helped me so much, but also made things so much more difficult because I had no idea that he felt the same way or how to handle the new emotions. You will only have half of that problem, luckily you know that Bella loves you, but the stronger emotions will be hard to handle especially when you are already in love."

I pursed my lips. "Are the vampire emotions really that different from the human ones?" I asked.

She threw me a look filled with sympathy. "I know that you probably don't want to hear this, but they are a lot different and a lot stronger. And I know that you love Bella, truly I do, but your feeling will get stronger when you get changed."

"Hmmm."

"I'm not saying that this life is easy, but you will have a great support team here, you will never have to be alone, you will be fine." She patted my knee. "Now, you two run along. It's getting late and you didn't eat lunch Edward, I have to work on my blue prints for the renovations of the house in Vancouver and Carlisle you need to go hunting, Rosalie and Emmett are waiting for you."

With that she jumped up off the couch and glided up the stairs.


	24. Chapter 24 Chicago

**This chapter goes to ttyyyytt, for informing me that America does, in fact, have Borders, CullenClanFan, who's review made me get off my ass and write, and to my fellow plane haters, whoever you are.**

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I hate planes.

I mean, I really, really, fucking hate planes. And airports. I hate the way that they smell, I hate how they always take so long and there is never anything to do. I hate that they always make me feel sick and sleepy which means that I always end up loosing a day of my holidays.

What's worse than catching a plane? Having to get up at three o'clock in the fucking morning so that I can get to the airport on time.

Bella was going to be dropped of at our place by Carlisle, who was finishing a night shift. Together, her, mother and I would drive the four hour drive to Seattle, wait for an hour for the flight and then catch the six hour flight to Chicago.

I don't think that you understand how much I hate planes.

So anyway, here I am at three in the morning, stumbling around trying to make sure that I had all my chargers packed and my phone and IPod in my pockets and a book in my bag, still half asleep and grumpy because, you know, not only am I half asleep, but I woke up with out Bella next to me.

A door opening and voices floating up the stairs alerted me to Bella being here, and a few moments later I hear her Angel voice form the door way.

"So baby, you gunna grace us with your presence any time soon?" She giggled, her laugh tinkering and making my eyes sleepy again. I turned to face her and said with a croaky voice –

"I miss my bed. Honestly I, I do. And I think that she misses me too, look at how lonely she looks."

"You're bed is a girl?" She cocked an eyebrow, trying not to laugh at me.

I paused, wondering if I could get in trouble for answering this. "Yes?' My conformation sounded like a question.

"Should I be jealous? I saw the way that you were looking at her."

I blinked, unable to come up with something witty to say to that this early in the morning. I settled with "No."

Bella, being the wonderful girlfriend that she is, laughed at me. "Come on, we've got to go soon, you can sleep in the car." She grabbed my bag off of the ground and despite my 'masculine pride', as Bella called it, being severely damaged at the thought of my girlfriend being able to carry it faster than I could, I didn't bother to argue as I followed her down the stairs. I did, however, grab the bag off of her when we got to the front door. Bella locked up with the hidden key and then we walked to the car together, where Elizabeth and Carlisle were chatting about Chicago.

"I didn't know that you had ever been to Chicago." My mother was saying.

"Oh yes, Esme and I actually lived there for a few years in our twenties. That was where we got Bella." He gestured to the two of us, smiling at my mother's wide eyes.

"Got Bella?" Bella snorted. "You make me sound like a puppy."

"Well you have eaten dog food,"

"Emmett made me!" She exclaimed, eyes narrowed as I chocked on my laughter. "Oh shut up Eddie."

I sobered immediately. "Hey!"

Carlisle rolled his eyes. "Well, I better let you lot get going. I'll see you in a few days Bella." He kissed her head, ruffled my hair and waved to my mother before getting into the car and driving off.

Mother sighed as she started to walk around to the drivers side. Even from here I could see the bags under her emerald eyes.

"Elizabeth, do you want me to drive?" Bella asked softly.

"Oh no dear, you must be tired to."

"No," Bella giggled. "Esme wanted me to be fully rested, she sent me to bed early."

Mother bit her lip then sighed, handing Bella the keys and getting into the backseat. "Thankyou Bella."

"It's alright."

My mother was asleep before we got to the end of the street and I wasn't far behind her. It wasn't until the blaring horns or Seattle started to seep into my mind that I woke up. The radio was on, Bella looked repentant and my mother looked concerned, but slightly smug.

"What happened?" I asked groggily. Looking at the clock, I realized that it was nearing seven and that we would be at the airport soon.

"Nothing Honey." Bella said. "We are almost there though, are you hungry?"

I groaned, which could be taken either way, but she didn't push it.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

"What did she say to you?" I asked her for the hundredth time, throwing the McDonalds bag into the nearby bin. We were walking around one of the CD stores near our gate. My eyes flickered over to my mother, who was inspecting a CD and seemingly paying no attention to me or Bella.

Bella sighed and kept on walking. I pushed my way after her, irritated at the crowed of people that were in the aisle with us, and wrapped my arms around her when we came to a standstill. "Just tell me!" I wined.

"It's not a big deal."

"If it's not a big deal then why won't you tell me?"

"If it's not a big deal then why do you want to know?"

"Because I know that she said something that got to you!" I probably said that a little louder than I should of. The man standing at the next stand looked at me wearily then walked away. I sighed again and squeezed Bella, before walking over to the next stand. "Just tell me. Please."

"Excuse me," I looked up to see a middle aged man with a frown crinkling more of his balding head then I thought possible. "I was just wondering if you had the new – "

"I don't work here!" I snapped, giving the man a disgruntled look. "Dumbass." I muttered as I walked back to Bella. I guess that the black on black assemble that I was wearing did look kind of like what the workers wore, but the lack of a name tag and a logo kind of gave it away.

"I think that you hurt the nice man's feelings." Bella giggled, not taking her eyes off of the CD's.

"Won't you just tell me?" I started to poke her side, knowing that I wasn't really affecting her but hoping that she got the point. I had been trying for the forty five minutes that we had been at the airport to get her to tell me what her and my mother had been talking about when I was asleep, but she was yet to give me any details.

"Look, it wasn't a big deal, she was just asking me more about the 'nightmares' that I have. I just made up some stuff, which I feel horrible about, by the way, and told her that I felt really bad about going behind her back and that we would tell her the next time, which I also feel bad about." She sighed, disgruntled.

"She didn't say anything to make you uncomfortable?"

"No Edward." I didn't believe her for a second.

"You're sure?"

"Yes Edward." She rolled her golden eyes at me. She had spent all of yesterday hunting, wanting to prepare herself for the onslaught of human blood that she would have to smell on the plane and the big city. Jasper, who had come over to install the new stereo in my car because Emmett was on holiday and I had no idea how to, stayed for a few hours to hang out with me.

"Alright then," I mumbled. As I finished talking, a voice came over the intercom announcing that our flight was ready to board.

"Great." I muttered. Bella laughed and kissed my cheek before pulling me over to my mother, who had made her way over to the cash register to purchase her findings.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

"Are you alright?" Bella asked me sweetly, though for the thousandth time that day.

"I'll be fine love," I said as I softly kissed her head, taking in the sweet scent of her hair. She always smelt like flowers and strawberries. Looking over the top of her head, I could see the dark sky, the clouds threatening rain. I sighed, part of me missing the sun and the other part comforted by the now familiar weather.

"You're so pale though." Looking at her, I could see the worry swimming in her eyes.

"That's coz I feel like I'm gunna throw up," I grunted. She sighed next to me, rubbing her hand on my arm. We had our luggage and were leaving the airport. I was heading towards the taxi rank with my arm still around Bella's waist, not really paying attention to what was going on around me but knowing my way through the familiar surroundings.

"Erm, Edward, where are you two going?" I head my mother call. Turning, I could see that she was standing next to a car, which my Grandmother was getting out of.

"Well I guess that we are getting picked up." I said monotonously.

"Apparently." Bella muttered from my side. Sighing we walked together to the car, and I smiled at the sight of my smiling mother and my exuberant grandmother. They were hugging and swapping pleasantries.

"And Edward!" She threw her arms around me.

"Hey Grandma, how are you?"

"Just wonderful, and this must be Bella." She then hugged a timid looking Bella, who's eyes I could see widen over my Grandmothers shoulders as she hugged her back.

"Hi." She squeaked.

"It's so wonderful to meet you." Grandma said, before letting go of he and turning back to my mother. "So Shelly arrives later today, but Caroline is going to pick her up, she got here a few days ago and – " Rolling my eyes, I turned back to Bella and opened the door for her.

The ride to the hotel was full of my grandmothers prattling with my mother commenting whenever she could, and I knew that I could of announced my engagement, Bella's pregnancy and the fact that I was moving to Canada in my most serious voice and that neither one of them would pay me the slightest bit of attention.

Bella had amused herself by playing with my fingers as me head rested on her shoulder and looking out the window, observing the town that she grew up in and the changes that the past hundred or so years had brought.

I could see my mother tensing as we got closer to where we used to live and when we passed Bella's old street I looked up to see her gazing at it intently.

"We should come back here when we have the time." I muttered, knowing that she would hear me.

"I would like that."

I heard her gasp as we drove past my old street. She was looking at the large park.

"What is it?"

"We used to go there all the time. Me and my friends, I mean. There used to be big events there on holidays and everybody from around this part of town would come to play games and socialize. They were so much fun. I remember when I was fifteen I was escorted to one by this boy that lived a few houses away and – "

"I thought that you said that you never said yes to anybody that wanted to court you?" I cut her off.

"I didn't, but this boy said that he wanted to take me to the Thanksgiving day event, not that he wanted to court me." She smiled sheepishly at me. "It's not a big deal Edward. We were already friends and I am pretty sure that Billy only took me because his mother was concerned about his lack of interest in finding a wife and he knew that she would not want her son with a girl like me."

"What was wrong with you?"

"I did not have a very high social standing despite my dad's job, I did not have a lot of money and because of my mother's….activities and reputation, that did not make me a desirable candidate for a wife, socially at least. Plus the fact that I worked instead of focused on forwarding my social standing, and hated to attend the balls, and I couldn't dance."

"That's really stupid." I said.

"That's how society was."

"Well society was stupid." I muttered. She sighed in response before looking back out the window, playing with my fingers again.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

I dumped my bad on the floor next to the bed and then let myself fall backwards, moaning at the softness of the quilt. The hotel, though not as nice as the two that I had stayed at when with the Cullen's, was still very nice, and because each of us had a separate bedroom Bella would be able to sneak into mine via the balcony.

I was dragged out of my musings by a surprising "Hey!" from the wall next to the television. I gave a small yelp, jumping up off of the bed, to see Bella standing by an open door. "Adjoining bedrooms, I assume that your mother didn't know about that."

I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her waist. "Well, that'll come in useful."

"So what else do we have to do today?"

"We're free for the next three hours. We have to go to dinner with my aunt and six."

"Which aunt?"

"Caroline and Shelly, and Shelly's two kids. Caroline's daughter won't fly in till later."

"I thought that your dad only had one sister." She said as she walked over to the bed.

"Shelly isn't really my aunty, she my dads cousin, but I just call her aunty."

She hummed in recognition. "How you feeling."

"Better."

"Well then lets go out."

"Out?"

"Yep, out. It'll help you to concentrate on something else." She jumped up off of the bed, grabbed a light coat from her room and her purse before grabbing my hand, jacket and room keys and pulling me from the room. My mother and grandmother were in the hall saying goodbye and looked at us curiously.

"We are going to go for a walk." I said as I put my jacket on. "That alright?"

"Just be back by five thirty."

"Mkay."

Bella and I followed grandma to the lobby and we parted ways once we left the hotel.

We were walking around town in no particular direction, talking about nothing and everything.

"Oh lets go in there!"

I looked to see where Bella was pointing and saw that we had stumbled upon one of the bigger shopping centers around. "Isabella Cullen, voluntarily going into a shopping center? I thought that I would never see the day." I teased her, squeezing her hand.

"I promised Alice that I would get her something, and besides, there's a Borders."

I led her into the shopping center, taking in the different shops and people, noting that there were only a few changes. That was to be expected I suppose. Bella and I had only been dating for about six months.

We had only been walking round for about a half hour and were just passing a Cotton On, when I heard a somewhat familiar voice call my name. Automatically I turned to the sound of the voice.

Sitting on the edges of the indoor fountain (where they almost always were these days) were some of my former 'acquaintances', they were the closest things that I had to friends before I left Chicago. Marty, still tall and blonde, Jack, still short and dark haired, and Oli, with another tattoo on his arm and new words on his fingers, along with a bunch of other guys that I couldn't remember the names of, or be bother looking at them close enough to realize who they were. Alissa, apparently still Oli's girlfriend, Tracy and Kate, two other girls that hung out with the group where there two. They were looking at me curiously, probably trying to see if it way really me, and at Bella, probably wondering what the fuck she would be doing with me. Kate was whispering in Tracy's ear and I heard Bella snort next to me. Looking at her, I could see that she was rolling her topaz eyes.

"These are your friends?" She asked me, throwing a glare at the two girls.

"Friends is probably giving them more credit then what they were, acquaintances is more appropriate."

"I don't like the brunette."

"That's Kate."

"Edward, Dude! Come on!" Marty waved me over. Oli was grinning like a mad man, of all of them, he was the one that I had been closest to.

"Sorry." I groaned to Bella as I started to walk the two of us over. She squeezed my hand, trying to show me that she didn't really mind.

"Hey man!" Oli cried, standing up.

"Hey!" we shared a quick 'man hug' slapping each other's backs before quickly pulling away from each other.

"Edward!" Kate thrilled before throwing her arms around me. I tensed, knowing how pissed off Bella would get and not knowing if I should hug her back. Thankfully, she pulled away after a few seconds and her brown eyes flashed to Bella, giving her a curious look, clearly trying to see if she knew her. Kate may have been a nice girl, though there was no denying that she was a complete flirt and a little ditzy.

"I haven't seen you before." She finally realized. "I'm Kate." She flashed her signature grin.

"Bella." Kate hugged her then, and Bella blinked in shock before slowly raising her arms to hugged back. I would have thought that she would have been used to random hugs, what with living with Alice for fifty or so years. When Kate pulled back, I quickly wrapped my arms around Bella, noting the way that one of the other guys, Jeremy I think, was looking at her.

The others introduced themselves to Bella and I tried not to glare when I saw just _how many _of them were staring at her.

Bastards.

"So, what are you doing here? You moving back?" Oli asked me, grabbing Alissa and pulling her into his lap. She stumbled slightly and I wondered if her and Tracy still did drugs on the weekends. From the spaced out look in her eyes, I was guessing yes.

"Nope, still living in Washington, just here for family stuff." I smiled tightly, wanting to get on with the day.

"What was it called? Spoons or something?" Marty snorted, enjoying the way that the others chuckled appreciatively.

"Forks." I tried not to get pissed at his comment, knowing that if anybody else had of said it I probably would have laughed to.

"Because that's so much better."

"It's not that bad." Bella chimed in. Immediately, Marty sobered and stared at her, somewhat transfixed.

"Oh, sorry."

"So are you Edward's girlfriend Bella?" Alissa asked quietly. Apart from the constant PDA's that she and Oli partook in, and the drug habits, she actually reminded me a bit of Angela Webber. Bella nodded shyly, hiding her head in my chest as I leaned to kiss her forehead.

"How'd that happen?" Jeremy snorted, probably not meaning for me to hear.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bella snapped, surprisingly angry. I guess that I shouldn't be to shocked though, she could be like a tiger when something pissed her off.

Jeremy's eyes widened and his voice was slightly higher than usual when he spoke. "I – I just meant that Edward was never really interested in girls before, then he moves across the country and comes back with a really hot one." He also choked a bit when he realized what he said, and Tracy glared at Bella.

"As inappropriate as that last part was, he's right." Alissa smiled at Bella. "Before today I always had a suspicion that he was gay."

"Hey!"

"Sorry Edward, but its true. Girls would throw themselves at you and you'd shoot them down ever time! What do you expect us to think?"

I didn't bother to dignify her with a response, instead I glared at the top of Bella's head because she was laughing at me.

"Thanks for your support honey." I muttered.

We spent another half hour with my 'friends', reminiscing about 'old times' and declining offers to a party that night. I waved as we left, told them that I would go on facebook more often (even though I had only gone on a handful of times since I had moved), and sighed heavily as I dragged Bella away from Kate, who was intent on giving her another hug.

"Sorry." I apologized, grimacing somewhat.

"Don't be, they were nice." And she looked like she actually meant it. I think that she liked them more than I did. Meh.

"Oh! It's five, we gotta go now if we want to get back to the hotel on time." She said, glancing at the clock in the middle of the food court. Puling on my hand, she started to drag me back the way that we came. I could feel my heart start to beat faster and my stomach seemed to be filed with lead.

She was fine with my friends, but now she had to meet my family, and my family was crazy.

I just hoped that they didn't scare her off.

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**Next chapter, Bella meets the Masen's. Review Please :), I would insert a witty remark about what reviews are better than, but i can't think of any right now.**


	25. Chapter 25 Fountain

I'm sorry, I know that it has been ages and that this chapter isn't that long, but I have been enjoying my holidays and whenever I am at the house, I never seem to feel like writing. On a brighter note, have a look at my new story life happens. Updates should be more regular then for this story, which kinda sucks because this story is my main concern, as far as my ff concerns go that is… Anyways, enjoy.

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I sat on the uncomfortably hard wooden chairs at the over priced restaurant. I squirmed in my chair, uncomforted by the stares that I could feel from my family. Bella, either sensing my discomfort or seeing their stares, put her little cold hand on my thigh and gave a gentle squeeze. The action gave me a sudden boost of confidence, and I looked up from my lap to smile at her, before masking my face into an expression of indifference and turning my head to face my two cousins, Samantha and Alex, who sat across from Bella and I, and the people that they had bought with them, Nina, Alex's girlfriend, and Hayle, Sam's best friend. Alex, the oblivious moron who wouldn't know the meaning of tact if it came up and bit him in the face, was staring blatantly at Bella's chest, so I kicked the fuckers leg, enjoying as he almost fell off of his chair. Sam, his older sister, just looked confused. I guessed that she, like my old friends, was wondering how I had managed to get a girlfriend, how I managed to get a girlfriend like Bella and probably wondering why I even wanted one, considering that she always thought that I was gay. I could almost hear her thoughts '_Maybe he's paying her, maybe they are just friends, apparently gay guys make great friends for girls.'_

Their dad, my Uncle Max, was also looking at the two of us, though much more discreetly. He seemed to be assessing the situation with his beady little eyes, before flickering his gaze to my mother, then his wife, then to Bella. I leaned over and kissed her hair, putting my arm around the back of her chair and running my fingers over the top of her arm. He shifted uncomfortably, then sighed in boredom. No doubt he wished that Allan, Caroline's husband was here, but he was currently serving for the army.

Mother, Aunt Caroline and Aunt Shelly were all sitting in a little group at the top of the table gossiping. I had long ago tuned them out. Caroline caught my eye and smiled at me, before looking towards Bella and winking. I grinned back timidly, still about awkward about the whole 'A vampire used your house to attempt to kill me' thing. I varied from wanting to hide from her, and wanting to laugh whenever she walked into the room.

I sighed in exasperation, tapping my foot and wishing that the kitchen would hurry up so that we could eat and then leave. This holiday was going to be fun, I was sure of that, apart form the days that we had to spend with the family.

"So Edward," Shelly said, the glint in her eyes reminding my of Jessica. "how did you and Bella meet?" Part of me wanted to make up some crazy over the top story to see if she would buy it, but I decided against doing so.

"We go to school together. Forks is so tiny that you can't help but to know everybody." I replied.

"Oh," She turned away, looking awkward. I grimaced, realizing that I had just made my relationship with Bella seem as if we were only together from convenience, because there was no one else. My mother shot me a glance, one that clearly said 'be nice and make your family think that you're functional'. I sighed, squeezed Bella's hand and smiled.

I realize that I probably seem completely over dramatic. So far, you probably can't see anything wrong with my family, can't understand why I have been bitching and spewing warnings at Bella about who to avoid, who was crazy and who I really didn't like. So far, we seemed pretty normal, right?

It wasn't just that I was a stuck up bastard who hated family just because I could. When I was younger, my cousins always singled me out to make fun of, my aunt and uncles always seemed to give me and my parents pitting glances when they witnessed my anti social behavior or whenever I did something different to their children. Like there was something wrong with me.

And no, I'm not traumatized or anything like that, definitely not. But my attitudes of running and screaming whenever something family related was about to happen and negative thinking towards the group just to avoid being picked on was ingrained into me. I didn't get picked on as much anymore (I hoped that this was because my cousins as a group had matured over the years and not just because they knew that I had grown up from being scrawny little 'Edweird' and could now kick their asses back, but I wasn't so sure) but now I was mostly just avoided like the plague. Sure, being avoided was better than being picked on, but still not something that I looked forward to.

Our food finally arrived, and I made pleasant small talk with the others, most of whom I could tell didn't really want to be there either. Sadly, there wasn't a way for Bella and I to swap plates without getting attention, so she had to result to hiding food in her napkin again. I was just glad that she didn't order soup.

When dinner was finally over, my aunts offered us a ride back to the hotel. Seeing as it was such a good night, with the stars shining brightly over the harbor, and after consulting with Bella, because I wasn't going to assume, we said that we would walk back to the hotel instead.

After assuring my mother that I knew where we were going and wasn't going to get lost, she drove off with the others and Bella and I started to walk. I was glad for the time to be alone with her. She had been oddly quiet, and not in the 'I'm shy because I'm with people that I don't know' kind of way, but in the contemplative, thinking kind of way. I wanted to know what she was thinking about.

We detoured around the board walk on the harbor, taking in the night and enjoying being able to walk at night without getting rained on or frozen.

"I smell ice cream." Bella said suddenly, pulling me from my musings.

"What?"

"Ice cream, over there," She pointed to a little cart. "want some?" She grinned at me.

I nodded eagerly, pulling her over to the cart with me and frowning when I realized that she didn't get any. I got a strawberry, which was my new favorite because it reminded me of the way that Bella smelt, the way that she tasted when I kissed her.

We walked round the harbor in silence, me eating the ice cream and wondering how to broach the topic. I thought that something more tactful then 'so what's wrong?' should be used, considering that she would more than likely just say 'I'm fine' and keep wallowing like she usually did. Maybe I didn't have to worry, maybe she would broach the subject anyway. Maybe I should just wait until she was ready. But then again, how long would that take, maybe she didn't think that this concerned me and didn't plan to tell me what was wrong. And if she did tell me, how long would I have to wait?

I finished the cone, sighing in frustration. She obviously was going to take a while to broach the subject with me, and I wasn't exactly what one would call patient. I threw the napkin in the bin, dragged Bella over to the fountain ( it was big, round and had those bits that squirt water up ) and helped her up so that she was standing in the ledge. With the water behind her, the squirts jumping up at random intervals, the lights that were in the ground shinning up illuminating her beautiful face with the stars and the Heavens above her, I couldn't help but think that this girl had to be more than that, more then just a girl and more than a vampire. Surely, somebody so beautiful, so loving and so pure had to be an Angel.

But here she was, standing on a fountain on a cool Chicago night with me. She was smiling at me questioningly, obviously trying to see what I was doing, and she had her hands on my face.

"Are you alright?" I assumed that she was questioning the awed look in my eyes.

"Yes, but are you?"

She looked startled, maybe she thought that she was being sneaky with her quietness.

"Yes." She said hesitantly.

"Bella, honestly." I sighed, frustrated and not understanding why she would not tell me.

"It's just," She sighed, closing her eyes and leaning her forehead on mine. "I know that you don't get along with your family, and I know that my family is your family too, but this is your real, biological family and nothing is ever exactly the same as that. I just, how am I supposed to take all of that away from you? I love you so much Edward, and I know that you love me too, but I can't take all of this form you." Oh no. "How could I live with myself after I change you and you and them can never see each other again?" Fuck!

"Bella, you just said it. You're family is my family, the family that loves my more than my own and the family that I have always been closer to than my own flesh and blood family. And I love you. I know that leaving my mother behind will be hard, but she has everybody else, being here has reminded me of that, she will be fine."

"But I can't take away your humanity! You will miss out on so much!" She wailed. She looked close to tears.

"No I won't! As long as I have you then I don't need human experiences that you all keep going on about. It'll be different for me than the others. They were forced into this life without a chance, but me, I am choosing this, I know what I am getting into, this is what I want! I want this for me, I want this for us!"

She bit her lip, the gold in her eyes swirling as she stared into my depths. I felt exposed, as if she was gazing into my mind and into my soul. "This should be about you, not about us, don't do this on account of me."

"But you're my whole world." I told her gently. I kissed her hand, stroked her hair and breathed in her scent. "Everything I do, it's because of you. I have no other purpose in life than to be with you."

Hr eyes snapped closed, and she took in a shuddering breath. I wondered if I had said to much, if I had upset her.

"Are you really sure that you choose this?" She hadn't opened her eyes yet, and I refused to answer her until she did. She needed to see my eyes when I answered this. She needed to see how sure I was, how much faith I had in her, in us. I stroked her cheek again, waiting until she got the hint.

She opened her eyes. "I choose you." I whispered. She snapped then. Her knees buckled, she threw her arms around my neck and buried her face in my neck, sobbing broken, dry sobs.

"Ok." She sobbed after a few moments, her voice a broken and chocked sound.

"Ok?"

"Ok, I will change you. No more arguments." She sobbed, but the sound was defeated, yet still hopeful, as if she was crying partially from joy and relief. I hoped that that was true, that she wanted me.

But I knew know, I was safe and secure in what we had now, in how our relationship would eventually progress. We would be able to be together as equals. She would change me, there would be no more arguments.


	26. Chapter 26

Hey guys, so, feeling really bad about all of this, but I won't be updating anymore. I'm just over Twilight, the whole thing kind of irritates me now.

I hate to do this because I really love writing and had so many ideas for my stories, particularly The New Boy. On that note, if anybody is interested in 'adopting' any of my stories, send me a pm and I will talk to you about it. You will be sent all of the single chapter files, and all of my notes for possible ideas for the story and for sequels.

Until next time,


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